Do you have a Kindle? Thorin Klosowski has written a helpful post on the Lifehacker blog called A Student's Guide to Using the Kindle for Research. It's got some really good tips, like getting the most out of the annotation features which let flag useful sections. That can really save time when you're working on an assignment and moving from doing the reading round to actually writing it up.
Thorin mentions reading journal articles on your Kindle. DISCOVER has a nifty feature where you can send journal articles across to the ereader (through the Bookmark icon).
He also gives some good advice about finding free books. I've always been disappointed by the typography of the 'free' books I've 'purchased' from Amazon - so many layout problems and mis-transcribed characters; the idea of borrowing higher quality texts is therefore very appealing. He mentions OverDrive which is a service Luton Libraries offer. You can manage your account over the web from their ebooks page. Bedfordshire's library service has a different ebooks service, from Bloomsbury, which I've not tried. It probably offers the same options. If you belong to another public library service, look at their website to see what they offer; most counties or unitary authorities have ebook services.
The university's electronic textbooks are generally not compatible with e-readers like Kindles, Nooks and Kobos. But they can be read on devices with a web-browser (like a Kindle Fire) or an app like Adobe Reader (for iPads or Android tablets).
Gizmos like Calibre, which convert ebook formats (from Mobi or PDF to ePub3 etc) should only be used on files where the rights owner has given permission for this to happen or on works where copyright has expired. Or, like I did the last week, I took a long document I'd created as a PDF (so I was the rights holder) and changed the format so it would be readable on my Nook. You could do this with your essays or reports. You stay classy, San Diego.
Lifehacker is a great blog to pick-up tips and tricks for making the
most out of pooters, smartphones and other tech. When I switched from PC
to Mac at home a few years ago, I found a wealth of guidance on there. I don't read every post, but it's definitely worth checking in once or week or so. Or, if - like my colleague on the desk next to me - you need to find out how to extend the battery life of your iPhone (or whatever), it's a good place to check out (if a link comes up on your Google results).
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