"Educating consumers on the benefits of electronic books, the Open eBook Forum has announced the launch of its worldwide public awareness campaign, 'Open an eBook...Discover New Worlds of Reading.' The eBook industry trade and standards association, the non-profit Open eBook Forum has designed the campaign to highlight how eBook technologies and products promote literacy, provide access to books for those with reading disabilities, and have enhanced educational opportunities. The campaign launched on May 2, with extensive promotions from Open eBook Forum members, such as Microsoft, Adobe, Random House, and McGraw-Hill; free book downloads from the top publishers available at openanebook.org; and a major media outreach. " [InfoSync]

There are some interesting titles available at the Open an eBook campaign site, although I don't see anything that's going to pull in mainstream readers. In fact, the children's books look the most interesting to me. I keep my Clie's cradle at work, so I can't test this right now, but I'm concerned that you might not be able to read these titles on a PDA. If that's true, this will seriously damage a new user's first impression of ebooks.

If the ebook industry was smart, they would work with libraries by giving us discounts and PR material. We have direct contact with readers, and our studies indicate that patrons who check out ebook devices from us truly enjoy the experience. If publishers and manufacturers made it as easy as possible and affordable for libraries to circulate ebooks, more everyday readers would use them and see the benefits of them, thereby creating a market of potential buyers.

However, I don't know of any libraries that have been included in the "Open an eBook" campaign (I hadn't even heard about it until today!), and I certainly don't see any listed on the site. What a shame.