TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for May, 2004

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“He shops online for music and books, both e-books and printed versions. He has a state-of-the-art scanning system that will convert the latest book to digital text that his computer can read aloud.” – San Diego Union article headlined Computer advances help people with disabilities work, learn and play in the digital era.

The TeleRead take: Imagine the hassles that an OpenReader approach, with a standard consumer format and either no DRM or DRM Lite, could save for blind users like Guido Corona, mentioned above. Proprietary crap can wreak havoc on speech synthesizers. And while proprietary formats may theoretically allow read-aloud capabilities, the speech often won’t work because of technical problems or the wishes or fears of publishers.

But of course the DRM Mafia typically doesn’t care about the blind except from a PR perspective. They’re interested mainly in protecting their precious formats, regardless of the pain inflicted on blind and sighted readers alike.

Interesting stat: According to the article, a poll by the National Organization on Disability and the Harris Poll found that “only 32 percent of disabled Americans ages 18 to 64 are working, compared with 81 percent of those without disabilities in that age group. Two-thirds of the people with disabilities who were not working said they would like to have a job.” If you care about those issues and how tech could help, look no further than Blind Chance, David Faucheux’s audio Web log which we’re proud to host on the TeleRead site. You can bet that he’ll be addressing the format issue in the near future. Needless to say, a TeleRead-style approach could vastly increase the number of e-books available in accessible formats.

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Think proprietary DRM is the solution for the e-book business? Consider all the grief arising from the closed code that Diebold has used in its voting machines. In A Really Open Election in the New York Times, writer Clive Thompson argues for open code that could be scrutinized in a public way. Time for an Open Reader approach for e-books?

(Via Boing Boing.)

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An Australian company owns University Viet Nam and reportedly is offering an electronic library of “500 data sources and 15,000 e-books.” Most likely, I suspect, the library is using public domain collections. And since Aussie copyright terms are still under debate, at least as far as I know, it’s very possible that 1984 is among the unencumbered books. What’s more, I see that Vietnam is itself among the life+50 countries, and George Orwell died more than half a century ago. Just something I can’t help thinking about this Memorial Day, here in the Soviet Union of copyright law.

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The post below from panyq@yahoo.com appeared on the eBook Community List. We know nothing about the sender, so be open-minded but cautious.

I am looking for some ebooks distributors in the U.S. and Europe.

In China, more and more universities and colleges use e-books instead of paper books. Those eletronic version of course books used in U.S. universities will have a huge market in China. We are looking forward to establishing the business relationship with the leading e-books distributors.

If you know anything, I will very appreciative to hear from you.

(Thanks to Roy Lewis for making certain I saw this item, which hasn’t shown up yet in my mailbox,)

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Oh, how primitive is Web linking. If you want to to link to another site, you’re more or less at the mercy of the Webmaster. You either link to full pages or to anchors within them. Wouldn’t it be nice to choose precise links from afar–for both Web sites and future e-books?

Standards gurus have come up with answers to the problem such as XPointer, but there are still nasty details to work out such as how to identify the exact material to which you’re linking.

Michael Day’s approach

Over at YesLogic, XML/CSS guru Michael Day believes that the best solution for identifying remote linking targets wouldn’t be “purple numbering,” which, among other things, would “require the reader to put up with purple blobs dotted throughout the text, which look ugly and distract the eye.” Instead he says in his new blog:

A better solution would be to implement granular linking at the browser level, using the existing text selection mechanism. When the reader wishes to link to some text on a page, they should select the text they want by dragging or double clicking it, then invoke “Link To This” from the toolbar or popup menu, which would create a link to the selected text on the clipboard.

The resulting link could be a coarse link to the enclosing paragraph or a granular link to the exact words, depending on the browser configuration. The link URL would require an appropriate fragment ID, which could use XPointer if the browser implementor has the stomach for it, or maybe something simpler tailored to the task at hand.

This browser extension would be more usable than purple numbers and would even work for old web pages that are unlikely to be updated in the future.

Perhaps it could be done in JavaScript. Any takers?

Comments? From an OpenReader perspective, these issues are terribly germane.

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Want to add our headlines for free to our site? The easiest way may now be through Feedroll. Key in the following RSS address http://www.teleread.org/blog/rss.xml. By going outside the “compact” mode, you can even reproduce our full text on your site. Via another service, too, you can add headlines or full text.

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“It’s true that [a] PDA is a better source to read e-books. It has bigger screens than that of cell phones. But there is no one buying PDAs. That is the problem.” – You Youn-sun, public relations manager at Booktopia, a Korean e-book comapany, as quoted by the Korea Herald.

The TeleRead take: Needless to say, an XMLish Universal Consumer Format could help e-books keep up as platforms came and went. Technology marches on. Too bad the trogs would rather fight the format wars than meet consumer needs.

Something clueful

One exception to the general stupidity is OverDrive’s use of Mobipocket, the very best of the proprietary formats, which, yes, has a Smartphone version. Astutely, OverDrive’s Content Reserve unit and the Cleveland Public Library have been promoting the availabity of library books on cell phones. Would that OverDrive CEO Steve Potash, also president of the OeBF, understand how much better the group could do by looking ahead rather than fixating on the proprietary approach. Mobipocket is good but just a hint of what would be possible if the e-book industry pulled together rather than spending so much time on mediocre and redundant efforts.

Meanwhile a few more details from Korea:

An electronic book can be downloaded from Internet sites. Users can obtain an entire text or parts at cheaper prices than regular books and pay via credit card online. Currently, 200,000 e-books are sold to PDA users every month, but more than a million e-book readers are using mobile phones, said You. Sales for mobile phones have increased from 20 million to 30 million won per month in early 2003 to 300 million won, where they have stayed since in August 2003.

Following the boom, SK Telecom Co. and KTF Co. added e-book content to their basic features. They felt books were better than games or other entertainment for promoting mobile phone services, especially to students.

Booktopia also got a lift from MBC’s “Exclamation Point” television program. Since the program began recommending a book every week, about 50,000 more mobile phone downloads have been recorded each month.

Time for publishers and telecom interests to support PBS in a big way?

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Years ago I suggested that the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress register only books supplied in digital format. In the essay below, Roy Lewis certainly has a good idea even if it is not quite the same as mine.

One of the things that publishers ask for from the Library of Congress is an LC number for their books as part of the cataloging. The storage problems for all of the books printed is becoming a real headache for the LOC. A good idea would be for the LOC to require a digital copy of any book for which the pubisher wanted an LC number from the LOC. This could then provide an archival copy of every book that goes through the LOC.

Storage would be electronic and in years in the future when the last copy was destroyed, it could be acquired from the LOC either in electronic format and even printed using Print on Demand technology (for those who just need the paper). After the book fell out of copyright, just look at how many books would then be available and accessible anywhere in the world and even space. An astronaut on the space station–or that GI on extended duty who wanted to read on a PDA or handheld ebooks device–could have the complete library of the LOC available with just a short transfer.

It would/will become a expensive project to convert all books now in the LOC, but it would not be an expensive project to plan for the future.

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From Marilyn Jenkins, President and CEO of CyberRead, Inc., and quoted with permission:

We have not received payment since July 2003. Our contacts at Content Reserve do not returned our calls or emails. CyberRead had accounts as both a publisher and a retailer. After discussing the new fees for publishers and retailers we exited from their system and removed their books from our system. At that time I was assured they would settle up all fees due. That has not happened as yet. I’m beginning to wonder if it will…

I am quite frustrated that the only payment I ever received from them took one year to get and I have not received payments since. CyberRead has been with Content Reserve as a publisher and retailer since the beginning. My agreement with them required monthly payments. When this is brought to their attention, no response is received. The question is: are they closing their doors? Or simply ducking out on payments like many declining technology companies in the recent past?

…The feeling I always get from anyone at Content Reserve is they are quite a bit above me and don’t have time to bother with me. I feel customer service is simply a bit of manners. I treat my customers as I would like to be treated (nicely and with respect) and I expect my vendors to treat me the same. Perhaps they will not take us seriously until we begin to treat them like they treat us, firmly and with authority…

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Are public libraries out of sync with the public in deciding how much money goes for actual books, and could e-books help matters?

In the Louisville, Kentucky, the metro council has urged more money for the Louisville Free Public Library (shown here in a 2002 centennial photo). But there is a nifty catch. Council members want a higher percentage of the money to go for books. They are dismayed that the library owns only 1.9 books per capita compared to a state recommendation of at least 2.5.

For books: Just a fraction of operating expenses

Just a fraction of actual library spending typically goes for books and other materials–for example, just 14 percent of the operating expenses in the Dallas library system. And yet library systems such as Dallas and Seattle pride themselves on their big library buildings, even though citizens are not always thrilled by the results.

In fairness to librarians, the issues are indeed complex. Below are some points that a nonLuddite friend of mine in the library world has made to me. I’ll also include my own thoughts, and I’d welcome further comments from others, particularly librarians.

–Books, especially the paper variety, cost money beyond the actual purchase prices. “Non-librarians usually do not realize that there is a cost involved with processing new materials,” writes Gary Price of ResourceShelf, “and often that cost is not included in additional funds for purchasing materials. LFPL would be better served by a general budget increase with no strings attached.” The scuttlebutt I’ve heard–not from Gary–is that a $15 book may cost as much as $45 to put on the shelf.

Response: Not the most cost-effective approach. Wouldn’t e-book eliminate the expenses except for, say, cataloguing and other odds and ends? And wouldn’t that leave more money for additional book purchases, as well as for more librarians to help the public make the best use of the books.

–Main libraries often may serve as centrally located warehouses, and big libraries downtown make it easier for the public to enjoy immediate access to out-of-fashion oldies.

Response: Great argument. As former poverty beat reporter, I can understand the glories of locating libraries on main bus routes. Still, given the cost of the real estate, I wonder if neighborhoods, especially low-income ones, could not be served with more money going into branches–even if this means that many old books are not available to readers immediately. They could be stored in warehouses for overnight shipment to the central and branch libraries. Meanwhile keep in mind that digitized versions of older classics are already online.

–As a result of the wonderful Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act–see the latest in Spiked and Norman Solomon’s column–it’s more expensive than it could be otherwise to digitize old books that are seldom used.

Response: True! Bono does not just divert money from schools, libraries and consumers to the copyright elite. It also costs taxpayers a bundle by increasing the dependence on physical libraries.

The bottom line? We’re not going to be able to do away with huge library buildings overnight. Still, e-books could help reduce the need for expansion–and do more than that, once enough of them are online. We’re talking evolution, not revolution.

(Louisville item found via LISNews.)

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What if indexes in e-books could reflect users’ keyword and concept-word searches? (Details from the MIT Technology Review, via LISNews.)

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Well-off library users in Denver are apparently enjoying longer library hours than poor people. TeleRead anyone? A national digital library system would be open 24/7 for all. Meanwhile here are details from the Rocky Mountain News about the inequalities:

Public libraries in Denver’s poorest communities are open 30 percent fewer hours than those elsewhere, a community group says, and it’s asking Mayor John Hickenlooper to change that.

Sanice Young, a parent leader for Metro Organizations for People, or MOP, released a report Friday that indicates seven libraries in Denver’s low-income communities are open, on average, a little less than 30 hours per week.

But 15 libraries in more affluent communities are open, on average, more than 43 hours per week the report said. The central library downtown was not included in the research.

“We want Mayor John Hickenlooper and the Denver Public Libraries to come up with a community literacy plan that addresses these inequities,” Young said.

City Librarian Rick Ashton said he asked for a meeting with MOP as soon as he received a copy of its report. He said library hours across Denver have been shortened because of the city’s budget shortfall.

Also, library hours are just one part of library services, he said. In low-income communities, the library focuses on outreach efforts, particularly for children and young families.

“That focus is on reading programs in Head Start and other early childhood environments, school visits by our staff . . . and general neighborhood and community outreach.” he said…

(Via LISNews and ResourceShelf.)

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Ka-Ching! I can just hear the sound of the cash money being alchemized earlier into the sleazy PIRATE Act, which, among other things, would let the feds bring civil suits against those accused of copyright infringement. In a week or so the Senate will vote on the act. Details at Copyright.

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Earlier we told of the PocketMac iPOD edition as a way of reading e-books on your iPOD and enjoying roomy hard-disk space. Another approach would be software from iPODLibrary.com.

Frustratingly, the iPODLibrary requires a special format and limits chapter sizes to 4K because of Apple’s own restrictions, meaning that authors apparently will have to do a lot of breaking up. Just the same, this could be useful for, say, reference works. Let’s hope that Apple itself does an iPOD someday that can be a true e-book reader. A bookPOD? Meanwhile a collection of facts from Apple history is among the first offerings from iPODLibrary.com.

Related: Is That a Computer in Your Pocket?, from BusinessWeek, about the a gizmos billed as the world’s smallest PC.

(iPOD info via Pocket PC eBooks Watch, The Shifted Librarian and MobileWhack.)

By David Rothman

Stupid, overDRMed e-book software is one reason why the Tablet PC hasn’t taken off. Another reason, however, is hardware prices.

One of the models in Averatec’s new 3500 series of Tablet PCs could help by bringing the discounted price under $1,000. It comes in at least two versions.

(Via Tabula PC and Engadget.)

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Public librarians love to talk up library databases as a free way to access high-quality information. But wait. There is something you may give up in return–your sanity, considering the Rube Goldbergish tortures that librarians or at least their database vendors often inflict on innocent users.

So far this morning I’ve struck out in my efforts to use two of the three databases that I’ve tried from the library system here in Alexandria, VA. One worked but lacked the article I needed, while two others won’t let me use the information on my library card–those 14 infuriating digits. Adding to the joys, here is the error message associated with BigChalk Library, a gem that would do Microsoft proud:

1. Make sure you are accessing Big Chalk Library through the Alexandria Library site.

2. Make sure the barcode you enter is 14 digits long, no spaces, dashes, etc. and is an official Alexandria Library card.

3. Make sure Java scripting on your browser is “enabled.”

4. The cookies setting on your browser must be “enabled.”

5. For Internet Explorer users, the security setting must be set to “medium low.”

6. For Internet Explorer 6.0 and up, your privacy settings must be set to “low.”

7. If you have personal firewall software, be sure to check that “referring URL” blocking is “disabled.”

8. If you are still experiencing problems, please clear your cache and delete all temporary internet files.

Anyone for a well-integrated TeleRead approach without the nonsense above? If nothing else, notice the requirement to cut back on privacy protection and other precautions. How ironic. Librarians are worried about the Patriot Act–correctly, in my opinion–and yet I can’t use my local library card without trimming back on my protection against snoopy and perhaps thieving crackers. Oh, yes, I could make adjustments. But then I’d have to worry about restoring my previous settings. Grrr!

Kudos: As has so often been the case, the Fairfax County Public Library came through when the Alexandria system failed. Yes, Fairfax’s databases require a long barcode number. But I found everything I wanted, and never did I have to scale back my browser’s privacy protection.

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From the BBC:

…New Zealand researchers have developed a way to overlay detailed animations and images on textbooks, children’s picture books and any other title that uses illustrations.

The 3D images are seen via a handheld viewer that watches where a reader is looking.

With a flick of a switch the viewer can also plunge readers into an immersive virtual world that lets them explore the book’s subject in more depth….

(Thanks to Mike Cane.)