E-books may not have caught on in most segments of publishing, but missionaries are rapidly trading in their paper books for the electronic versions.
Religion Today.com (July 7) reports that with the “growing trend toward mobility in ministry,” both foreign and domestic missionaries are looking for alternatives to lugging hundreds of books to far-flung places. With e-books, high airfreight charges are avoided (not to mention the damage to books in tropical climates) and the technology can easily be transported on the ground.
Missionaries based in remote locations can get new books almost instantly by unlocking them from CD or downloading them via the Internet. The search capabilities of new software, allowing users to hunt through hundreds or even thousands of books in a short time, also makes them valuable research tools. The article concludes that when “it comes to digital books, missionaries are ahead of the technology curve . . . not lagging behind as some people might expect.”
