The elephant by Peter Carnavas
https://canadabay.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/FULL/WPAC/ALLENQ/4411163/3856552,1
The Elephant is a novel for primary-school aged children. The book also exists as a print book. The e-book was borrowed from a public library through BorrowBox, and was read on an iPad Mini, and required the BorrowBox app.
This e-book has basic digital functions. Tapping in the centre of the screen will toggle, on or off, a header and a footer. The footer displays the page number in this style, “Page 109 of 248 pages”, as well as left and right pointing arrows, which when tapped jump to the previous or next chapter. Also in the footer is a narrow bar with a moveable circle, which when dragged, moves through the pages of the book, allowing the reader to control the speed of navigation, slowly or quickly, backwards or forwards.
The footer also includes an icon in the bottom left-hand corner, when tapped, opens a list of chapter names and page numbers; tapping on a chapter name will take you to the beginning of that chapter. There is also an icon that allows the text to be customised. The font size can be made gradually smaller or larger, by tapping repeatedly on a small or large A; and there are six fonts to choose from, including a font called “dyslexic.” There is also a “themes” display option, which allows the reader to choose from “paper”, “white”, “sepia” or “night” background colours. There is the option to display two pages on the screen, in the style of a print book, or to display only one page at a time. Depending on which combination of font size and one or two page display option is chosen, the e-book will paginate to different lengths. For example, choosing the two page option with a regular font size will paginate the book to 248 pages.
In the right-hand side of the footer, there is a “search” function, where a reader can search for all instances of a word in the ebook; and tapping on any of the results will take the reader to that instance of the word.
Tapping on the far right side of the screen will turn the page to go forward, while tapping on the left side will move the reader backwards. Tapping the top right-hand corner of the screen will bookmark that page.
There is a feature where the reader can recommend the ebook to a friend by emailing them: the friend will receive an email with the book’s title, author name, a brief description of what the book is about, and a link through to the ebook platform, (in this case Bolinda Digital, the company behind BorrowBox) that the book was borrowed through. This feature allows for some social interaction, in that one reader can recommend the book to another, during their engagement with the ebook.
Frustratingly, there were a number of times, and in particular when exploring the digital functions, that the ebook would freeze, such as when using the search function. There was no way out of this; closing and re-opening the BorrowBox app would not re-set the ebook. The iPad had to be powered off and then on again and the app reopened to reset the ebook. This happened more than once.
A recurring motif throughout the book was a reference to an old song, “Side by side”. The inclusion of this song as an added feature of the ebook would have been nice, although there may have been a copyright cost or barrier; or it may have caused the size of the ebook file to bloat too much. Still it seems like a missed opportunity to include an audio addition, even if just a short excerpt of the song.
Of the three digital texts reviewed, this ebook is the only one which can be borrowed from a public library. The selection of children’s ebooks available for loan through public libraries is still limited, mainly ebook versions of print novels, with even fewer picture books available as ebooks.
While there are digital functions available, this book is closely aligned with the codex version of the book. Being able to customise the font – size and style – and also to display either one page or two, and to email a friend to recommend the book is the extent of the digital functionality.
With the shutdown of public libraries during April and May, there was a noticeable increase in the borrowing of ebooks. Nevertheless public libraries still have some way to go in making more people more aware of the availability of ebook borrowing. Additionally the public library sector also needs to work with book publishers to expand the ebook offerings available through their catalogues. Some work is already underway in this respect through ALIA (ALIA, 2017).
References
ALIA. (2017). ALIA position statement on ebooks and elending, September 2017. https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/ALIA%20ebooks%20and%20elending%20position%20September%202017%20Final.pdf