Reading the Net: Books in Cyberspace
Janet Foster, Contributing Editor
Have you read a good Web site lately? The Internet offers a vast array of book-related information including online bookstores, book reviews, genre sites, and electronic magazines (e-zines), some in full text, others as abstracts; many are free of charge. Commercial vendors such as Borders and Barnes & Noble have developed mega-Web sites where visitors can search for titles, read reviews, and even purchase books online. Book-oriented Web sites have proven to be as valuable as Publisher’s Weekly in identifying materials for patron use. Librarians can exploit online book resources to complement current collection-development strategies or use them as virtual reader’s advisories.
Electronic Text Collections
Perhaps the most widely known site dedicated to launching books into cyberspace is Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, created in 1971 by Michael Hart at the University of illinois, includes a wide variety of copyright-free titles, which enables unlimited distribution. The goal of Project Gutenberg is to provide authoritative electronic text (e-text) editions a short time after they enter public domain. The period before a copyrighted work can enter the pulic domain is fifty years more than the life of the author. So don’t expect to read the latest Michael Crichton or John Grisham novel in cyberspace or find e-texts in Web format with graphics and multimedia.
What you will find at Project Gutenberg are hundreds of classics free for the clicking on the Internet. From perrenial favorites to more obscure works, Project Gutenberg’s e-text archive is a valuable resource for both researchers and cyber browsers. Texts included in Project Gutenberg are categorized into three areas: light literature such as Alice in Wonderland and Aesop’s Fables; heavy literature such as the works of Shakespeare; and reference sources including almanacs, encyclopedias, and dictionaries.
E-texts created by Project Gutenberg are made available in what has become known as “Plain Vanilla ASCII” the simplest, easiest-to-use format available fostering access to the majority of readers. Although this format is quite different from the Web pages with graphics and even multimedia to which people have become accustomed, readers should take advantage of the ample literature available at the Gutenberg site. The 10,000-book Project Gutenberg Electronic Library is scheduled for completion in 2001 and is seeking volunteers. For those with the spirit of cyber adventure, visit the Project Gutenberg Web site for information about becoming a Gutenberg e-text editor.
The Internet Public Library Reading Room boasts an online text collection of more than 7,700 titles that can be browsed by author, title, or by Dewey classification. Each entry is accompanied by bibliographic information, including title, author, date, and hypertext URL. Another feature allows users to link to similar works and lists books under multiple classifications—one of the prime advantages of a virtual book collection since it dramatically improves access. At present, the library contains pointers to more than 3,400 books and, unlike Gutenberg’s plain ASCII test, many editions include graphics, which makes Web reading more aesthetic. In addition to Project Gutenberg and the IPL, the venerable Library of Congress is a great place to embark upon a cyber book journey. Library of Congress collections serve as a compilation of the best e-text collections on the Internet.
Book Stores on the Web
Amazon.com is undoubtedly the best known of the online book vendors and may well be one of the most popular sites on the Internet. More than a bookstore, Amazon serves as a gateway to a variety of book-related information. Librarians can garner ideas about book selection, locate ISBN numbers and pricing information, or just browse amid the cyber stacks for a good read. Amazon.com’s searchable index offers 2.5 million titles and is a great site to find information on new and forthcoming books.
Visitors can browse its cyber stacks by category, such as best sellers and award winners, to find titles of interest. A “Reviewed in the Media” section allows patrons to locate titles that they might have seen in print publications. Kirkus Reviews and reviews written by site visitors add depth to this mega book site. Amazon also includes links to author interviews and its own bestseller list and features an easy-to-navigate user interface.
Barnes & Noble offers one million titles and, like Amazon, the site also hosts author interviews and tries to build an online community. The site provides many full-text reviews and features a searchable database similar to the one at Amazon. Borders exudes the same café friendly ambiance that it is known for in its regional locations. Although bookstore competitors such as Borders and Barnes & Noble have entered the cyberspace e-commerce fray, Amazon still seems to lead the biblio pack.
Reader Advisories
BookWire might well be considered the most comprehensive and thorough online book-information source on the Web. The site provides categorized links including booksellers, publishers, libraries, and other book resources from book awards to writing resources. BookWire also offers author/title/publisher search capability and a BookWire Index, which further enhances its usefulness. In addition, BookWire provides current book news highlighting articles from such publications as Publisher’s Weekly.
Publisher’s Weekly Online is the virtual counterpart of the popular book news magazine and its Web site is superb. PW offers in-depth interviews with top authors, publishing industry news, best-seller lists, and early reviews of adult and children’s books. Librarians may keep apprised of the latest best-seller news and lists of the most poular books at www.bookwire.com/PW/bestsellers.articles. Visit BookWire often to view its compilation of book-related information, reviews, and best-seller lists.
BookBrowser, created by librarians, collects fiction reading lists, arranged by genre, series, and topics. The site, strongest on genre fiction, helps reader’s advisors in public libraries, serving as a less costly alternative to commercial CD-ROM or online subscription services. The best starting place for browsers is the “Reading Lists” section, which includes “Series and Sequesls”, “Best Of”, and other categories.
The American Library Association features a Best Book Listing and ALA Notables with recommended reading lists. Archives of the Booklist selections make the ALA Web site an exceptional choice for librarians. Useful sections include Caldecott Medal, Newberry Medal, Oprah Book Club, Banned Book Week, and Booklist titles. An index of full-text articles organized alphabetically by author serves as a guide to selected articles from previous issues. The Booklist archive facilitates perusal of adult and juvenile books of all genres in cyberspace.
Since not all books requested by patrons are still in print, Bibliofind is a great cyber resource for out-of-print books and other ephemera. The site provides a searchable interface to many rare and out-of-print book dealers and offers a searchable access to more than 4 million titles.
Cyber Book Reviews
The New York Times Book Review Web site includes a searchable archive of more than fifty thousand book reviews, author interviews, and book news articles from the newspaper and the New York Times Book Review since 1980. It also contains the full text of the weekly bbok review as well as a feature called “Life and Times: Major Authors in Their Own Words and Ours,” and selected first chapters from books on the New York Times Book Review or New York Times best-seller lists. Users of the New York Times site will have to create a free log-in name and password to use the site that will then recognize anyone logging in from the same machine, a useful feature at public terminals. It provides reviews, online discussions, book news, and the first chapters of some current works. The New York Times on the Web provides access to the most recent New York Times book review, its back issues, reviews from the daily paper and a searchable archive of more than fifty thousand book reviews back to 1980. It also offers Web-only material, including real-audio interviews. Web sites of other major newspapers such as The Washington Post and The Boston Globe offer similar book-review features.
The Next Virtual/Cyber Chapter
The Internet offers a nearly limitless library of writings of every kind imaginable that are now available at the click of a mouse. For readers, the Net is like an enormous book, written by millions of writers all over the world. Book cyber sites are creating order out of the multitude of library material from plain ASCII text as used in Project Gutenberg to Web sites with graphics and multimedia enhancements.
The Book Lover’s Guide to the Internet by Evan Morris is an exceptional resource for librarians explaining how to locate online books, magazines, and libraries, and the author gives advice on how to publish original works online. Or view the Morton Grove Public Webrary- Readers’ Advisory, an exemplary Web site that offers a compendium of sites for book lovers including book reviews, author interviews, award winners, best-seller lists, and much more for librarians and other fiction lovers. So, enjoy “Reading the Net” as you take a virtual trip through the looking glass and peruse the wealth of electronic texts available in cyberspace.
Resources Cited
ALA Best Books, www.ala.org/booklist/best.html
ALA Notables, www.ala.org/work/notables.html
Amazon, www.amazon.com
Bibliofind, www.bibliofind.com
Booklist@ALA, www.ala.org/booklist/index.html
Book Browser, www.bookbrowser.com
BookWire, www.bookwire.com
Borders, www.borders.com
Barnes & Noble, www.barnesandnoble.com
Lewis Carroll, www.cstone.net/library/alice/aliceinwonderland.html
Library of Congress, www.loc.com
Evan Morris, Book Lover’s Guide to the Internet, New York: Fawcett Books, 1996.
Morton Grove Public Webrary, www.webrary.org/rs/rsmenu.html
New York Times Books on the Web, www.nytimes.com/books
New York Times Book Review, www.nytimes.com/books/home/contents.html
Project Gutenberg, www.promo.net/pg
Publisher’s Weekly Bestsellers, www.bookwire.com/PW/bests