Clemson University Libraries loaded up 14 Rocket eBooks for students and faculty who participated in a Summer Humanities Academy in Genoa, Italy, in May. Professor Cecilia Voelker, who led the students in Italy, wanted each student to have access to texts of relevant literary works. After examining the problem, we determined that the Rocket eBooks would be a great medium to provide multiple texts in a portable format. The books were loaded up with Dante, Virgil, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, and many other texts. The students were very excited to be taking the eBooks to Italy with them.

I got involved with this project because Professor Voelker is in the Art Department here at Clemson, and she asked me to help her. We wrote an innovation fund grant (an on-campus program) and received $8,000 to buy the eBooks and also to purchase titles for an on-campus trial once the summer trip was finished.

We decided to wait until this fall to quiz students about their use of the eBooks in Italy. Instead of sending the students a boring email questionnaire to fill out, we invited them to the library for pizza and a Genoa "reunion" to share their pictures and memories, and to let us know how they felt about the eBooks. The pizza party was a great success. Everyone (all female students incidentally) who was on the trip was able to attend. Dean of the Libraries Joseph Boykin and I were able to talk directly to students and faculty to get their opinions. They loved the eBooks as a device and thought this would be a good medium for using in the future. One of the major complaints was the material that was loaded on the books. We knew this was going to be a problem before the students left. We were not able to locate electronic versions of many of the items we originally wanted and so had to settle for alternates. For example, the available translation of Dante's Inferno was by Longfellow; the language is very poetic and was not particularly accessible to students who were trying to get a quick understanding of the work. The most successful use of the books was in the ghetto in Venice, where they used the books to read portions of The Merchant of Venice. It looks like the books will be going back to Italy next summer. I'm hoping for greater availability of titles (we'd really like to find an electronic Italian textbook so they can do some language study while there). Now how can I get them to send ME with the Summer Humanities Academy? Maybe I can be the eBook consultant!

I've spent a great deal of time this fall preparing for the on-campus trial. It has two parts. We have loaded eight eBooks with titles for our Popular Reading Collection and are checking them out to the general public for three weeks. When the device is returned, we will ask the patron to fill out a survey so that we can evaluate reaction to this medium. We bought such titles as 'Tis, Into Thin Air, and Bee Season from barnesandnoble.com, and also loaded the books with such popular classics as Frankenstein, Emma, and The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Many public domain titles are available free for download. A complete list of titles we chose for our trial is available at http://www.lib.clem son.edu/popular/ebooks.htm.

The second part of the trial involves faculty from the College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities. I worked with several of our reference liaisons to identify faculty in the college who would be interested in participating in an eBook trial. We have allowed each faculty member a budget of $100 to spend on titles for us to load onto an eBook. So far their choices have ranged from the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) to The Right Way to Hire Financial Help to Utoli moya pechali. (The latter is transliterated; the actual Russian looks immensely odd on the eBook.) We are checking the eBooks out to these faculty for the whole semester, and at the end of the trial we plan to have a cool party with adult beverages to discuss reactions to the eBook medium.

And guess what! You can find out how our on-campus trials went in the spring because I am doing a poster session on eBooks at the Los Angeles conference. I know that the suspense is killing you.

Back at the ranch, we are experimenting with being the 24-hour, eat-a nd-drink-whatever-you-want library on campus. Students really seem to want a 24-hour study facility, our main library is not designed well for that sort of thing, the space here is a lot easier to control, and I am some kind of glutton for punishment. We are staffing the library with a contract security guard from 11:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. and requiring Clemson ID for entry between those hours. We are in the process of figuring out how we can offer access to our scanning facilities during these hours (for students in the departments we serve primarily). As to the food and drink, guess who was the first person to spill a GIGANTIC cup of coffee? Yep! I reported myself, got supplies, and cleaned up after myself. The main library is actually going to follow our lead in expanding the food and drink policy, because the campus food service gurus are putting a Cyber-Cafe in there complete with internet access and cappuccino!