21. A method comprising: under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions, generating a searchable item index of terms in an electronic item, the searchable item index comprising a list of location identifiers indicating a location at which each term appears within the electronic item; generating a searchable item-specific master index of terms in the electronic item, the item-specific master index comprising a list of terms used in the electronic item and, for each term, a reference to an item index entry for the respective term, the reference to an item index entry comprising an identifier of the electronic item in which the term appears, a number of times the term appears in the respective electronic item, and a position at which the term is indexed in the item index for the respective electronic item; and transmitting the item index and the master index to a handheld electronic book reader device.
21. A method comprising: under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions, generating a searchable item index of terms in an electronic item, the searchable item index comprising a list of location identifiers indicating a location at which each term appears within the electronic item; generating a searchable item-specific master index of terms in the electronic item, the item-specific master index comprising a list of terms used in the electronic item and, for each term, a reference to an item index entry for the respective term, the reference to an item index entry comprising an identifier of the electronic item in which the term appears, a number of times the term appears in the respective electronic item, and a position at which the term is indexed in the item index for the respective electronic item; and transmitting the item index and the master index to a handheld electronic book reader device. 24. The method of claim 21 , wherein the list of terms in the item-specific master index consists of terms in the electronic item.