E-Books: I Sing the Book Electric
Like a meadow that blooms overnight, suddenly the world is full of E-book stories. Some librarians may view these as a field of pesky dandelions; others see wildflowers in sweet profusion. Writing about E-books is like thus like trying to change the tires on a moving vehicle. Things are moving very fast indeed, but a few signposts among those wildflowers or weeds are visible, and we will try to pick them out here.
What is an E-book?
An E-book, or eBook, or electronic book, is a written work readable on a computer screen, downloaded to a pc or digital assistant, or placed on a reader designed for that purpose, like the Rocket eBook (also called a Rocketbook) or SoftBook. While most of the works now available in e-formats are older, public domain titles, more and more are appearing soon after print publication. Some, like the notorious Stephen King novella, Riding the Bullet, were written expressly for E-book format.
Librarians (and other folk) often use the term E-book to refer not only to the electronic text but to the device or reader used to display it for perusal. We’ll try to keep those ideas separate here, but it isn’t easy.
Text in electronic format has been available on CD-ROM and in databases for more than a dozen years now. E-books, in their current infant incarnation, are being created in encrypted formats, requiring a download and unlocking to a specific device, or authenticated to a specific reader’s computer. Texts purchased for the Rocketbook, for example, cannot be read on SoftBook. Also, these E-books may be keyed to one particular device, so content cannot be transferred among several devices owned by a library. E-books and their various reading devices are definitely developing as a consumer product rather than a library tool, and that makes for some interesting collection development challenges.
Content the actual titles of E-books can be obtained in a number of ways. Rocket eBook titles are sold through Barnes & Noble. SoftBook offers subscriptions. Project Gutenberg titles are available free. NetLibrary.com sells whole collections. Libraries have had to do some creative work with vendors to bend E-book products to the will and desires of their patrons.
Public libraries and E-books
Public libraries, such as Shenendehowa Public Library in Clifton Park, New York, have begun to purchase E-book readers (in this case the Rocketbook) to circulate among their patrons. The Albany Times Union found this interesting enough to write a story about it: noting that the Rocketbook can hold up to ten titles or over 3000 pages (devices with expanded memory can hold many more titles than that), and that it enables readers to make marginal notes, underline passages, and bookmark pages. Typefonts can be enlarged, too.
The charm of the new isn’t the only thing that draws people. A device such as the Rocketbook is about the size and heft of a large paperback, can hold multiple titles, and because its screen is backlit can be read in places where it is difficult to read conventional books. While some readers d’un certain âge (and I am one of them) find E-book reading uncomfortable and not immersive, others love them, and many find having a handy number of titles on one device extremely appealing.
At the Algonquin Area Public Library, Illinois, the Rocket eBook devices have been circulating briskly. Roberta Burk’s recent article on E-books (see bibliography) is a model of clarity and includes sensible solutions to concerns about E-book collections in a library setting. Their eight Rocketbooks are loaded with titles related in subject or theme, for example: all of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mysteries, or the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series. Burk details their solutions to cataloging, checkout policies, and the circ staff’s procedures for checking the readers back in to the library. Rocketbook titles are keyed to a specific pc and identity, so each title purchased can only be used on one device.
Burk explains that, besides the 58 RocketEditions now owned by the library (they reside on a library PC, and remain stored there in case a borrower accidentally deletes a title from the device), the library hopes to add many titles available free through Project Gutenberg. More than 2400 titles are available through Project Gutenberg, most of them classics out of copyright. Project Gutenberg titles can be loaded onto the Rocketbook with a little tweaking. When this happens at Algonquin Public Library, patrons will be able to customize the contents of the Rocketbook they borrow.
Do students dream of electric text?
The academic library at North Carolina State University has used E-book devices with some success, as Nancy Gibbs relates (see bibliography). At the North Carolina State University libraries last spring, seven Rocket eBooks and five SoftBooks were purchased and loaded with titles. Library staff figured out how to load public domain Project Gutenberg titles onto each of the devices, although Rocket eBook titles couldn’t be loaded onto the SoftBook and vice versa. The library is investigating ways of using the devices to load information about the library and its services, and also to add services for users with disabilities. In the fall of 1999, the library launched netLibrary.com and continues to work with that vendor to provide multiple copies, reserves in E-book format, and possible distance education applications.
E-books and the Prime Directive
The Prime Directive for public libraries (pace oh fans of Star Trek) is surely access, now, and more or less forever. Do E-books live eternally because they never go out of print or get lost or stolen, or do they disappear completely as new technologies supersede the old and ancient E-books can no longer be read? How are they cataloged (Burk and Gibbs offer good, sensible, viable solutions)? How do we count them?
Clifford Lynch, whose thoughts on anything are always worth considering, defines a number of fuzzy biblio e-terms precisely in his articles for Library Journal’s netConnect supplement (see bibliography). He talks both about book-reading appliances, such as the Rocketbook, and products like the forthcoming Microsoft Reader that turn one’s computer into a book-reading appliance. Lynch also asks us to consider thoughtfully how we think about books, and how we behave towards them:
We have been able to pass books on to our children, our nephews and nieces, to keep them in libraries for future generations to learn from and enjoy. Can we accept a world where this is impossible? (LJ/netConnet, p27 Jan 2000.)
Gary Chapman, director of the 21st Century Project at the University of Texas at Austin, quotes novelist and screenwriter Sarah Bird in his article on E-books: “We’re all holding hands and venturing into the future carefully, one step at a time, checking with each other, saying, ‘Does this work for you?’”
Bibliography
Ten Best Articles about eBooks and ePublishing. by Joseph Cadieux at eLibraryBook.com (cadieux@elibrarybook.com). Regularly updated and with links provided. Several articles in this bibliography were first located here.
Burk, Roberta. “Don’t be afraid of E-books” in Library Journal, April 15, 2000, p42–45.
Chapman, Gary. “Digital Nation: Still hard to digest, but digital books may have a future” in The Cutting Edge: Focus on Technology, The Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2000.
Dooley, Kathleen. “Library lending e-book stories” in the Albany Times Union, May 17, 2000, pF4.
Dorman, David. “E-book conference illuminates issues” in his Technically Speaking column, American Libraries November 1999 p72–73. Reports on the second Electronic Books Conference sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Clear discussions of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and why MARC will be, and should be, superseded by XML.
Gibbs, Nancy J. “E-Books: Report on an ongoing experiment” in Against the Grain, Dec99/Jan2000, p23–25. One of the most lucid discussions of how electronic books work in a library environment.
Lynch, Clifford. “Electrifying the Book” and “Electrifying the Book Part 2” in netConnect, supplement to Library Journal, October 15, 1999 p3-6; January 2000 p24–27. The Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information untangles the knot of terms used (often imprecisely), talks about what readers want, examines consumer issues and crucial preservation issues in this two-part commentary for Library Journal’s print internet issues supplement.
Patchogue-Medford Library, Patchogue, NY advertises its E-book holdings and allows patrons to sign up for them.
New York Public Library will launch netLibrary.com this summer, from the electronic resources section of its web page.
Open E-book Forum. Issues, technologies, standards, and interoperability for electronic books
Salon, the web magazine, on the future of the book. Brigitte Frase’s response to Sven Birkerts, “The Cassandra Complex” (March 30, 2000) is particularly thoughtful, nuanced, and fine.
Some Sources and Vendors
netLibrary “the provider of eBooks”. Albanese, Andrew Richard. “The E-book enterprise: netLibrary’s digital mission” interview with Tim Schiewe, CEO of netLibrary, Library Journal, February 15, 2000, p126–128. Rapidly growing list of titles that can be output to any reading device.
Glassbook. Provides a free reader, a reader for purchase, and a Glassbook server specifically for libraries.
SoftBook has implemented a program specifically for public libraries.
Prepared by GraceAnne A. DeCandido for the Public Library Association, June 2000. ladyhawk@well.com
The Public Library Association’s Tech Notes project grew out of the desire to continue the work of Wired for the Future: Developing Your Library Technology Plan by Diane Mayo and Sandra Nelson, published for PLA by ALA in 1999. Each of the Tech Notes, written by GraceAnne A. DeCandido, is a Web-published document of 1,500–2,500 words, providing an introduction and overview to a specific technology topic of interest to public libraries at a particular point in time. Topics were identified by PLA’s Technology for Public Libraries Committee. Each Note is marked with the date of its completion and posting, and updates are noted.
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