An eBook reader is essential in the nation. The reason for this is the Kaldan National Library will not have physical books to borrow. Instead all books are ebooks making an ebook reader essential. The idea of this is to reduce paper waste, and therefore conserve trees. In addition, paper books are usually more expensive than eBooks. When borrowing from the Kaldan National Library, one does not have to remember to return the ebook, but instead – the ebook will be removed when the time expires. All eBooks from the library must have enough licenses for the eBook as the number of books they wish to lend. So if a title needs to have 3 copies, then 3 purchases must be made for each book. This means that every borrowed book is for 2 weeks only.
All eBooks must have an intuitive interaction with the touch screen. This will include tapping left to turn a page back, and tapping right to turn a page forward. Swiping from the bottom will bring the owner to the Home Screen, and tapping on the gear will take the owner to the settings.
All eBook readers will be required to have a standard minimum specs that must be obtained for the tablet to be recognized. The specs are as follows:
- 1Ghz dual core CPU, 512MB of memory
- 1GB of storage for OS, and an SDXC micro-SD card slot
- 7″ 300dpi backlit display
- Wifi-5, and bluetooth 5 for synching
- Support for an ebook.ka email address
- Access to the Kaldan Digital Library
- Support for the major formats including
- epub
- klib
- Unprotected .mobi
- mp3 audio
- txt
- USB-C for charging and synching
A 1Ghz dual core CPU will not only be good for the now, but will support the user for an estimate of 5 or more years. The 512MB memory will be enough to handle simple and non-demanding tasks. However, having more than 512MB will be recommended.
A 1GB+ of storage is required for the reader’s OS, and respective apps. The micro-SD card slot is for the books that the user will own or borrow. The smallest I seen a new micro-SD card is 32GB which will be enough to support not only eBooks, but music files as well. This will allow the user to have one device to do 2 things at the same time. Since the card slot is SDXC, this will allow for up to 1TB of support which will definitely be overkill for any eBook, or eTablet.
A minimum of 7″ is required for the display. Also, there must be at least 300dpi, and a backlit display. The screen must be at the minimum grayscale which will support black dots for making letters. 300dpi should make for comfortable pixel free reading.
Wifi-5 and bluetooth 5 is required to allow the eBook reader to download files from the eBook library’s or the reader’s email address. Bluetooth is required for earphone support. This will allow the eBook reader to read the book to the user, or use the micro-SD card to hold .mp3 files for listening to music. All eBook readers will have support for the ebook.ka email system. The user will have to register their device which will consist of providing the MAC address for that reader. Once provided, the user will provide for a password. Anyone wishing to send an ebook to the user will send it to MAC-Address@ebook.ka.
As mentioned, the Kaldan National Library is eBook only. This means there will be no physical branch, but instead one will use the eBook Reader to download borrowed books for free, and can use it for 2 weeks. They will just have to register with the Kaldan National Library. Once registered, they will provide for the MAC address for all of the readers and tablets they have. If the user borrows an eBook, and wishes to keep it, they can select the buy option. It will automatically grant ownership to the user, and the purchase will acquire a new license for that book with the library.
As for support, all of the ebook formats (with exception of .klib files) are read only. This will not matter so much with a reader, since there is no stylus support, but even with tablets, read only is the only support.
A USB-C cable is required for direct synching, and charging. Since an eBook reader falls within the guidelines for USB-C charging, by requiring this cable is to keep with a national standard for consumer electronics.