There are contrary views about the value of academic eBooks. There are advocates
such as Lemken (1999) who asserted that the technology should “fill the gulf between
printed and digital information” (p. 4). A number of advantages have been widely
claimed to be associated with this new form of technology. Hernon et al. (2006) listed
advantages such as convenience, economy, portability and materials being more up to
date. Shiratuddin et al. (2003) noted that students can build their own personalised
digital libraries. Lam, Lam and McNaught (in press) listed the following potential
advantages of using eBooks: access to more readings, remote access, searchable
readings, potential links to allied multimedia resources, portable resources (a PPC can
hold many books), and optimising reading time (e.g. during travel). There is also
empirical evidence which indicates that, once students can connect to the technology,
they enjoy it (Simon, 2002) and even read faster (Wilson, 2003).