Clicklaw Wikibooks Adds EPUB Support for All Current Titles

New on Clicklaw

Last week Clicklaw Wikibooks posted a complete set of EPUBs. Now every publication produced in partnership with the public legal education & information community in BC, including John-Paul Boyd, Cliff Thorstenson, and People’s Law School, can be downloaded for convenient offline reading on a compatible e-reader of the user’s choice. Here is a list of titles with links directly to the EPUB files:

A Clicklaw Wikibooks EPUB, much like a PDF, is produced within the Clicklaw Wikibooks environment and demonstrates again how varying formats can stem from one digital source. EPUB is a downloadable e-book format that is compatible with a very wide array of devices, one key exception being Amazon’s Kindle device, which uses a proprietary format.

Generally, all one now needs to take Clicklaw Wikibooks on the go is a standard e-reader such as a Kobo, iPad, or most any other tablet or digital ink-style e-reader. Even if you only want to read off of a computer or a smartphone, EPUBs are accessible so long as your device is equipped with the right software. Many users may already have one common application, OverDrive, installed, since OverDrive is required by some major library systems in BC that lend books in EPUB format. One notable, free and popular application is Calibre, which supports Mac, Windows and Linux users. iPhones and iPads come shipped with iBooks, which is a very clean and simple-to-use e-reader, and Android users also have many options to choose from.

Here is a composite look at how our growing collection looks on an iPad running the standard iBooks application (note that to download the EPUB, just look for the green icon circled below):

epubfeature

Like PDF, EPUB is a good format if you are reading at your own pace, don’t want to read from a website, or want to save the whole wikibook for when you are not online. Clicklaw Wikibooks are created and distributed with limited restrictions (we use a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada Licence) so you can email the format to a friend, and the EPUB file doesn’t “expire” as would ones you borrow from most libraries. EPUB is a newer standard format for e-book readers and is generally preferred for e-reader devices over PDF because the format scales easily to improve readability (it adapts to match the size of your screen—no columns or other non-essential formatting), it automatically hyperlinks a table of contents to improve navigation, and EPUBs support some of the more convenient features of e-readers such as bookmarking and personal notes.

As we work closely with public libraries we aim to help them integrate Clicklaw Wikibooks in EPUB format in catalogues province-wide.

Here is a complete list of all Clicklaw Wikibooks, which we will keep updating as more are added. For help about our use of e-books, print-on-demand, and other format options please consult the Clicklaw Wikibooks Print/Export Guide for more information.

Clicklaw Wikibook Author Cliff Thorstenson Visits the Merritt Public Library

New on Clicklaw, The broader context
Clicklaw Wikibook author Cliff Thorstenson and Merritt Branch Librarian Deborha Merrick
Clicklaw Wikibook author Cliff Thorstenson and Merritt Branch Librarian Deborha Merrick

Continuing the tradition of Clicklaw Wikibook authors visiting their local public libraries, Legal Help for British Columbians author Cliff Thorstenson recently visited the Merritt Branch of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District Library System. Local librarian Deborha Merrick told Cliff that she was pleased to add the latest edition of this very popular legal guide to her library’s legal information collection.

Written in plain language, the guide includes over 40 common legal problems faced by low income people, and outlines the first steps your client can take to address the problem. An annotated listing of over 60 referral resources is also included. The 2013 edition features updated information in family, welfare, employment insurance, and immigration law.

Cliff published the first edition of Legal Help for Rural British Columbians; A guide to help non-legal professionals make legal referrals for their clients in 2008. Recognizing that this guide would be a helpful addition to public library collections and training, the LawMatters program worked with Cliff and a team of volunteer editors to update the 2009, 2011 and 2013 editions. Since 2012, the guide has also been available in a wikibook format. This innovative format makes the online guide easy to search, easy to update by the author and editors, and easy for readers to download and print a recently updated version of a page, chapter, or the whole guide.

For readers who would like their own copy, both wikibooks Legal Help for British Columbians and JP Boyd on Family Law are now available as an e-pub for e-readers and mobile devices. Just look for the e-pub download information on the right hand side of the main page of each wikibook. We are planning to have an information page available soon that will explain how e-pubs work, and how they compare to a PDF version.