Posts Tagged ‘media’
Cloud reading
Posted on: March 27, 2017
Books can be heavy, notes get lost and eyes get tired. On all these issues, ebooks can help. Reading a book on a screen may not have the same satisfaction as holding a physical copy. Yet there are benefits to having access to books stored in the “cloud“.
Differences between ebooks and reading apps
What makes a reading app an app rather than an ebook? There aren’t many differences between reading apps and ebooks. For those who are curious about such things, one distinction is that ebooks tend to be downloadable and have copies exist in physical form, whereas reading apps are more likely to be ‘born digital’, that is, having no physical manifestation (at least to begin with). Reading apps and ebooks these days might mix text with interaction and features of other media such as video, audio and games.
Benefits of ebooks and reading apps
- not needing to carry a book around,
- having a choice of things to read between,
- being able to read without hands with the help of a screenreader such as the freebie Natural Reader or VoiceOver on Macs,
- have your device record how much you’ve read.
We have two ebook platforms available through the catalogue for subjects including maths, social sciences and English.
If you are after fiction you may want other apps on your smartphone for easy access.
3 Free Reading apps
There are a number of reading apps to add to your phone for free, much of the content is free too. It depends on how you like your reading experience but it’s always good to have a book available on your smartphone if you’ve got one.
Perhaps try The Pigeonhole which releases ebooks in installments so it’s more digestible for on-the-go reading.
There is also the Kindle reading app so you can get all the out-of-copyright ebooks downloaded on your phone or tablet or desktop.
I’ve also heard of the app Hooked which present stories as a chat conversation.
Like, you know, super spooky.
Don’t forget your public library will have ebooks available to borrow.
Let us know what reading apps you’ve heard of or would like to try out. What combo of apps vs print works for you?
Natural intellectual brilliance
Posted on: January 16, 2015
Astrodeep by Rich Murray is licensed under CC BY 2.0
I read this article today in The Independent newspaper (available in the LRC) on women and science. According to research, women overestimate the need to be naturally brilliant to succeed in science and engineering. This conclusion follows from research carried out into why so few women do engineering, technology and science degrees and even fewer progress further into such fields. It seems women feel less confident in their instant intellectual abilities.
This is compounded by images in the media portraying geniuses like Sherlock Holmes who when faced with a problem immediately solve it and don’t need to work long and hard at it. I watched the film ‘Theory of Everything’ recently and Stephen Hawking is shown in the lab writing complex maths formulae all across the blackboard. He is just naturally brilliant at physics. But hard work is important too.
Hopefully we can find ways to encourage women and men to challenge themselves with subjects that seem out of reach. There are lots of ways to find out more about subjects before deciding to go to university. For example, University College London holds weekly free lectures in science for everyone to attend. The next one is called ‘Auroras Abound – Comparing the Northern Lights of Earth, Jupiter and Saturn’ on Friday, 23rd January. Does this kind of lecture interest you?
