The London Book Fair Experience (1)

Getting to ExCel was an experience of its own sort; getting all the way to the UKeiG stand another marathon, but several committee members staffed the stand over the three days of the Fair. The day that I was there was eventful and busy.
My day began at 10:00 with a presentation - jointly with colleague, Ray Lonsdale - on e-books in libraries. We based the presentation on our work over the years and on responses from the many librarians who have attended previous workshops, and aired the issues most often voiced about the acquisition, management, promotion and use of e-book collections in libraries. On several occassions lively discussions carried the workshop forward, and the 'visual aid' - in the form of an iRex Technologies iLiad e-book reader - was the source of much interest - followed up at the end of the hour, and later on the UKeiG stand downstairs.
On the stand, life was alternately busy and quiet - at the end of the morning stragglers from the workshop visited the stand and we were able to promote the Group and the meetings programme. We even enrolled some new members! By about 4 o'clock, things were quietening down noticeably around the exhibition hall - that may be an exageration as the ExCel hall is so vast that we could only really comment on our little corner. Among the late afternoon visitors, was the designer of the iLiad - he was able to confirm that the mid-April date for its launch was still on target and that the company was having successful negotiations with content providers. Apart from free content from the Web, iLiad users may subscribe to licensed material which is then sent to the Iliad via the iRex Delivery System, encrypted so as prevent unlicensed copying. Everyone who saw the iLiad, enjoyed its looks and feel, and was impressed by the read quality that the e-paper/e-ink screen offered.