iRex Announces Its First ePaper Device: The Iliad ER 0100

Saw this article come through Gizmodo.

I've been following e-paper for a while now, so I am glad to see a working product beings released in the U.S. finally. SONY did bring out a consumer product called "Librié"but sort of flunked as an e-book reader device. Strict DRM, no support for standard text formats, and limited titles (No serial content, where e-books make the most sense). The New Illiad seems to have learned from SONY's mistakes.

For Academic libraries, this opens up some new possibility for InterLibrary Loan, Course Reserve, and possibly reducing printing. Since students are charged now for printing, maybe we can give them the option of e-books to save their databases articles. I am also exctied to hear about the device's Internet capabilities, and the subscription type services. Ideally, online tools that will allow quick search of citations from OPACs and Databases. Ah well its always easy to dream about features on an unannounced device. This will be my Library Geek pinup at my desk for a while...