E-readers: devices for passionate leisure readers or an empowering scholarly resource?

E-books are increasingly common in academic libraries and e-book reading devices such as the Kindle and iPad are achieving huge sales for leisure readers. The authors undertook a small study at Loughborough University Library to explore areas in which a variety of e-book readers might be applied. Areas included: e-books on reading lists, PDFs of journal articles, inter-library loans supplied from the British Library and teaching support for Shakespeare studies. Whilst the e-readers did not offer sufficient advantages to merit integrating them into a service, the study proved useful in developing library expertise in the use of and support for e-readers