TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for February, 2005

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Psst! Don’t tell the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, or Homeland Security, but the TeleBlog keeps getting a few accesses from Iran. No nuke secrets for the ayatollahs. Hey, guys, I’m Jewish. Maybe this is one reason for the visits:

The head librarian of the Central Library of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Dr. Mohammad Abdullahi, said on the threshold of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the university that the electronic library of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, with some 5000 digital periodicals and 500 electronic books, has connected the students and the faculty members to the most important scientific resources in the world.

Here’s a modest proposal to improve U.S. security. Maybe we can send Michael Gorman over there to rant against e-books and other knowledge-spreaders.

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I don’t mean to pick just on librarians. Maybe the Washington Post should gently ask Michael Getler, its ombudsman-PR guy, if he wants to retire ahead of time.

An ombudsman is supposed to be independent, but apparently this man is taking a few too many naps on the job. He still hasn’t responded to my accuracy-related complaint of a month ago–following the Post’s embarrassing misuse of the term “public domain.”

The Old Fart Department

In the Old Fart Department, Gorman, er, Getler, shines. Headlined The Essential Newspaper, his latest column acknowledges that many people are rejecting the Post as too bulky to read within their schedules. So is he paying attention to suggestions that the paper go on a diet and use the Net to provide detailed coverage? Or place more emphasis on databases with targeted advertising–for readers seeking information on such-and-such a topic? Nope. Well within his Old Fart Mode, Getler writes:

My guess is that the circulation decline will level off at what will amount to The Post’s truly hard-core readership plus some newcomers. These are my kind of people. I’m one who has always been grateful to newspapers. I think they give people an edge, an advantage, no matter what it is people do. To me, the printed paper remains more naturally compatible with our history and habits, with reading and discussion, and with a sense of community and of discovery that often comes just by turning the page.

Gorman Land! Is Getler his twin–separated at birth? Is it really so barbaric to click on a hyperlink rather than turning a page?

Keep in mind, Mr. Ombudsman-PRman, that we’re not talking Post-hating here. Before canceling my weekday subscription to the Post becuase I tired of dealing with all the gratuituous solid waste, I subscribed to it for decades. Yes, the Post can be vexing at times. But generally I agree with it politically and, in fact, am more liberal. No right-wing conspiracies. I’d like the Post to survive–all the better to keep watch on Rove & friends.

The good news is that just like the library profession, the newspaper one has at least some innovators. Gorman would do well to check out Greensboro. No perfection there. But in use of the Net, the Greensboro News & Record is miles–no, galaxies–ahead of the Post. It’s to the point where Greensboro’s editors actually understand the Net better than their critics do. They fully grasp the synergies between blogs and newspapers. Some years ago the Post imported a book critic from Greensboro; perhaps L Street should have hired a Net-hip ombudsman from there as well. What’s more, as backwards as the press can be in general, I don’t think it’s as much a Luddite stronghold as the senior reaches of librarydom are. Getler, while putting down bloggers to build up the press, is less obnoxious than Gorman. Maybe there’s hope even if the two men are in the same general class.

Still-better news, here in the D.C. area, is that Getler will leave as the Post’s ombudsman later this year. His successor, Deborah Howell, 64, describes herself as “feisty.” We’ll see. Getler has done some thoughtful critiques of the Post’s reporting, but as “The Essential Newspaper” shows, he can do the PR drill as well–in defending the status quo rather than paying heed to the Greensboros.

What Michael Getler really might want to consider: Getler should be writing a history of the International Herald Tribune, which he once edited I think he’d be good at it, and as an old fogy from the print era, I myself would happily read his book.

But for Getler to be an ombudsman with so little empathy with modern readers? That is another question. My own theory is that he might actually feel bored, overwhelmed or both in his present job. Why has he ignored an email and a phone call about the Post’s mistake, and why hasn’t there been a correction?

Who might augment Gorman’s work if he won’t step down: Given the terms of Getler’s contract, perhpas the Post could keep him if need be–but augument his columns with sagacity from someone with a more modern outlook on newspapers in the Internet era. I nominate either someone from Greensboro paper or else Steve Outing or Vin Cosbie, both well respected within the trade. Or if the right person be be found within the present staff, then fine.

The Post Web site from a community-journalism perspective: I won’t buy the argument that the Post runs a popular Web site and therefore knows the Net and is serving readers well. Many if not most are from out of town and useless to local advertisers. From an old-fashioned local news perspective, the Post’s Net operation is a disaster. When I use MyWashingtonPost.com, I can’t even sign up for e-newsletter focused on my Virginia suburb. Mr. Getler, don’t you get it? The online Post cares not a whit about my community, and civic life here will suffer as a result of it.

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Latest on The Gored Man: Blake has a Gorman “roundup, roundup” at LISNews.

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Here’s a neat wrinkle for an e-book conference–a “show and tell.” Bring your pet e-book device and compare it with the hardware other people are using.

That’s one of the attractions at the eBooks in Illinois Academic Libraries Conference–which actually could also be of interest to out- of staters. It’ll be held March 7 and 8 in Champaign. Details:

The conference will feature ebook experts speaking on such topics as: an industry overview: devices, readers and formats; pricing, acquisition, access, and integration with print resources; standards; free vs. commercial texts; university press projects; and the promotion of digital resources..

The attendance prizes will range from a $200 PDA to a 1-year fixed subscription to ebrary’s collection.

Among the vendors will be EBL, ebrary, Elsevire, netLibrary, OverDrive, Ovid, Wiley-Interscience and xrefer.

Speakers:

Lori Bell, Director, Mid-Illinois Talking Book–on audio Books

Chet Grycz, CEO & Publisher, Octavo–on rare E-books

Megan Fox, Web and Electronics Resources Librarian, Simmons College–on e-book reading devices, including PDAs and handhelds

Bill Harroff, Reference & Information Technologies Libn, McKendree College–on (r)evolutionary (e)books

Charlotte Johnson, Director of User Services, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville–on promoting e-books

Rick Lugg, Partner, R2 Consulting–on an the e-book industry overview

Tom Peters, Founder, TAP Information Services–on consortial acess to electronic books

Mary Summerfield, Director of Business Development and Planning, University of Chicago Press–on e-books

Cosponsors are Southern Illinois U at Edwardsville and Mckendree College.

Jon Noring and I will not be there, but we hope that others will feel free to put in a word for a nonproprietary format such as OpenReader. E-mail Jon if you’re going to the conference and want some informaton in advance.

And if anyone wants to share a conference report with us, contact me. Any video bloggers in the area? This conf would be fun to cover.

If you have questions, reach Charlotte Johnson (618-650-3830 / cjohnso@siue.edu) or Bill Harroff (618-537-6952 / wharroff@mckendree.edu).

By David Rothman

“States already take land and other property in order to benefit the public by building things such as roads and schools. Now some legislators and officials are saying they should be able to take away a drug company’s intellectual property, its patent.” – The American Prospect via Slashdot.

The TeleRead take: Zealots have tried to position copyrights as being eternal like land titles. But could this parallel haunt them in the end–even though copyright law isn’t the same as patent law? In the case of drugs, of course, government officials are POed over patent-enabled gouges, and as the Eyes on the Prize case shows, public opinion might eventually turn against Hollywood’s copyright equivalents. No miracles expected soon. But here’s a little hope that new political and legal tactics could be devised to cope with the damage from the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. With the threat of eminent domain actions, maybe Hollywood will be more open to compromises such as those advocated by Larry Lessig.

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Some professors at Ohio State are offering their own e-textbooks and other online material for free–saving their students big bucks. A lesson for the publishing industry if it can’t control prices? What’s next? Could open source textbooks suck many millions out of the business, especially as e-book technology improves ? Many in academia might see that as A Good Thing. (The Oklahoma Daily, via eBookAd.)

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Michael Gorman has come up with the excuse that his anti-blogger piece in Library Journal was good fun. Huh? The damn thing in places reads like a legal brief. Simply put, the president-elect of ALA is a liar and an idiot who can’t grasp the power of blogs to put books and other formal content in context. Moreover, he has yet to repudiate his ignorant op-ed in the Los Angeles Times against e-books for most uses.

Worse, by discouraging the mass digitizing of books, he is a threat to literature. As often noted, many venerable classics were printed on acidic paper. What happens when the originals crumble? Suppose that they grow even more out of fashion and society does not bother to preserve them. And wouldn’t computerized scans be more efficient than old-fashioned microfilming, especially in spreading the books around? The more literature is on people’s minds, the more society will care about old works.

Myopia as a threat to culture

Of course, it would help to have redundant and systematic storage, as well as gracefully evolving e-book standards. Those are the very kinds of things that will not happen as quickly if the Michael Gormans prevail and e-books and preservation methods fail to receive the funding and other support they deserve now. An ALA leader this myopic is a threat to culture. Even Google cannot do the job right without sufficient help from the library community in the company’s ambitious but worthwhile efforts. And here’s Gorman opposing the essential. As troubling as the professional issues are–Gorman apparently has a real knack for violating Reference Desk Rule One and spouting off in prominent places without solid citations–the biggest problem is this. He has a severe vision deficit.

Gorman as a threat to formal librarianship

Now put yourself in the place of a bright young student pondering a library career. You know that e-book displays are rapidly improving and only will get better and better, and that with good software, you can find your way through digital books more easily than through the paper variety. You’re aware that Google’s efforts are just a start, that scanned works can be OCRed and made into extraordinarily readable text fit for the disabled and the rest of us. You also understand that researchers are even working toward e-books with flippable pages, so that distinctions between digital books and the paper variety will blur anyway, With all this knowledge, just how eager would you be to become an LIS student–if Luddites such as Gormans set the tone for the profession?

I myself came to the e-library issue as a lover of books, not an MLIS, and people like Gorman make me rejoice that I avoided formal librarianship. Oh, the malarkey that such fools would have filled my head with–at the very time I was most vulnerable! Please, ALA. Dump this guy now if you care about old books and new librarians. Even though Gorman is approaching retirement age, he can still do the library profession his share of unwitting damage through his lack of vision and integrity. The only positive aspect of this whole fiasco is that some more visionary librarians are speaking up.

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Oh, no! Has civilization declined to the point where Michael Gorman, the president-elect of the American Library Association, must appear in Library Journal to respond to mere bloggers?

Here are a few naive questions in the wake of Gorman’s LJ article and an anti-e-book rant published earlier in the L.A. Times. Didn’t he seek election while pledging to work toward “equity of access for all library users?” Couldn’t the efficiencies of the new technology help bring more books to cash-strapped libraries? And what about the disabled? For some reason, my eyes haven’t been functioning as well these past few days as they usually do. I don’t know how I’d fare without the large-font capabilities of the Cybook and my ability to enlarge the characters displayed in my Web browser. Just why is Gorman so blind to the obvious benefits?

A Manchurian Candidate for library-haters?

People like Gorman need to get with the times. Imagine–an ALA president-elect who sneers that until recently he had “not spent much time thinking about blogs or Blog People.” Maybe Gorman is really a Manchurian Candidate planted in the bosom of the ALA by library-haters. In an era when library systems face cutbacks and maybe even shutdowns, why is this man so eager to detract from the ALA’s credibility as an advocate of 21st century libraries?

My sympathy goes out to more clueful ALA members, especially Gorman’s supporters, including the B People among them. What an embarrassing old fossil even by the standards of an antique Baby Boomer, me! Along with many thoughtful librarians, Luds and nonLuds alike, I share Gorman’s concern over the rise of McInformaton and the decline of sustained thought. But isn’t the best response to improve e-book technology in many ways and meanwhile digitize more books so that each can be read in greater and greater context?

The impeachment question

Yes, Gorman worries that e-libraries will serve up serious books out of context. But couldn’t devilish technologies such as blogs, Wikis, annotations and mixes provide more context if used in a library-style way? Has this man even heard of the invention of hyperlinks? As for the inevitable issue of only certain books showing up online, doesn’t it make sense to begin the digitizing at some point, starting with public domain works and others without copyright-related terrors? Just how familiar is Gorman with the technologies involved here? If not, has he committed the library equivalent of malpractice by fuming against various forms of new tech without familiarizing himself with it? In the L.A. Times article he complained of the terrors of reading hour after hour on a screen, but has he ever used at length the very latest kinds of electronic paper?

No, Gorman should not be impeached for questioning the use of e-books for reading serious literature, but if his methodology was flawed, that is another question. Is he willing to be fully accountable to librarians and educators who ask how much experience he has with the latest e-book technology?

The Dan Rather of the Library World?

If not, then Gorman is the Dan Rather of the library world–someone who’d rather Stand by The Story than keep an open mind. His conclusions flatly contradict my own experiences. Thanks to e-books and a suitable device for reading them, my reading fare these days is more serious, not less. Isn’t it a little reckless of Gorman to assume his limited experiences apply to everyone? And just how gifted is he as a technological seer in anticipating the future development of e-book technology? Has he consulted closely with those who know? If not, mightn’t he be violating Reference Desk Rule Number One–defer to the true experts?

Gorman as a writer

Not content to attack blogging and e-books, Gorman goes after bloggers as writers. He himself is mediocre at best if you judge by the samples I’ve read. I challenge Gorman to let book reviewers outside the academic and legal worlds evaluate the following sentence: “It turns out that the Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief.”

I’m also amused by his references to typos in blogs. I’m all for copy desks–as well as do-it-yourself proofing–but in judging people on the blog circuit I’m far more interested in logic and originality of thought than in spelling skills. Perhaps Gorman should remember a line from the start of The Time Machine–a mention of a ” luxurious after-dinner atmosphere when thought roams racefully free of the trammels of precision.” Isn’t that what informal blogging is all about–an “after-dinner atmosphere”? But poor Gorman sees everything as an academic presentation, and even by those standards, the Library Journal article is a flop. As pretentious as he is, he fails to cite one great novel or even a scholarly work to back up his points. Maybe he’d be a better writer if he read more. Wait. Perhaps he reads widely but thought, “It’s a magazine article, so I’ll adjust to the medium and avoid all the trimmings.” If so, let him at least be consistent. Gorman shouldn’t rate Jane or Joe Blogger by academic standards or even journalistic ones. Blogs are blogs, not professional journals or the New York Times.

Related: Washington Monthly blogger: ALA should dump prez-elect Michael Gorman for anti-ebook remarks. While the comment appeared in a Washington Monthly blog rather than in the magazine itself, keep in mind that the Monthly is among the more respected of publications read by progressive policy-wonks in D.C. Oh, and for the latest, see ALA President Not Fond of Bloggers in Slashdot–as well as some sane reactions in LISnews.

(Thanks to my friend Rochelle Hartman for pointing me to the Gorman rant–and for her guts as an ALA councilor at large. Other ALA librarians, too, are speaking up. My favorite line is from Karen Schneider: “Nice. Really nice. Good use of the ALA presidential bully pulpit. No citations, of course.”)

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How about this–a print-on-demand network for those who want physical copies of free documentation? Check out a NewsForge item. (Via eBookAd.)

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Did a Korean e-book actually sell five million copies, as claimed? Can’t say. Still, I read with interest the following:

When South Korea was the guest of honor at the world’s largest book festival, the Frankfurt Book Fair, many visitors were impressed by what they saw of the nation’s creativity industry, of which audio-visual entertainment is an important part.

South Korea’s best-selling Internet book sold 5 million copies, while Taiwan’s sold only around 20,000. According to an annual report released by Taiwan’s Eslite Bookstore last year, 73 percent of locally published books sell less than 2,000 copies in a year’s time.

The country’s electronic book standards were set by Electronic-Book Korea, a coalition of 25 publishers and 34 computer companies. To avoid fighting an unnecessary price war in this territory, 120 South Korean publishers came up with a sum of close to US$7 million to set up BookTopia to engage itself at full force in developing electronic books that could be read by many different electronic devices. BookTopia stands as a good example for Taiwanese publishing houses considering going digital.

The phrase “unnecessary price war” implies price fixing. Still, please note the rest–the reference to e-books readable on many different machines. OpenReader, anyone? If that five-million-copy bestseller exists, standards probably played a role in making it possible. Compare that to the pathetic and balkanized U.S. e-book industry where the total sales are less than $20 million a year.

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“…a Feb. 1 Soapbox commentary said that one-third of Salinas residents have access to the Internet. If that figure is correct, it means two-thirds do not have access. Very likely many of these are students. Also it argued that adults are able to buy books instead of going to the library. This shows a lack of awareness of the poverty level in Salinas. The Internet is not a substitute for a library. It augments it. The American Library Association reports the Internet has increased – not replaced – the circulation of library materials.” – Marlys Maher, a retired librarian and library commission chairwoman in John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, California, as quoted at Californian.com.

The TeleRead take: Exactly. “Buy a book” can be like, “Let them eat cake.” For fiscal reasons, not every good book in a TeleRead-style library could be free, especially at the start. But that should be the goal. And as for physical libraries, there’ll always be a place for neighborhood branches for story-telling hours, meetings of civic groups and other purposes. The question is a little more complicated in the case of huge book palaces. Do we want to build and expand them in expensive downtown areas while laying off librarians and turning branches into “express libraries” with limited hours and nary an MLIS in sight? But that is entirely different from the situation in Salinas, population 150,000, where skinflints intend to let the entire system close down.

Related: Library group visits Salinasa and Fund buys time for Libraries at Californian.com–along with Friends of the Salinas Public Library and a Web site called Save Salinas Libraries!

Pictured: Steinbeck, via the Wikipedia.

(Thanks, Alev.)

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From my friend Rochelle at LISNews:

Anonymous Patron writes “that British schools are looking at giving the time-honored classics a backseat in the classroom according to this Sunday Times (UK) article.

In their place, children may be required to study a greater range of modern writers and those who reflect the ethnically diverse nature of modern Britain such as the prize-winning black author Andrea Levy.

Other potential candidates for the new list include fantasy writers Tolkien and Philip Pullman, who many believe more closely reflect the reading tastes of children than the current list.”

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Blogger Corps Delivers Greensboro101 appears in New Voices and tells of a lively site bringing together bloggers’ posts on topics ranging from politics to furniture. Greensboro so far just may be the California of political blogging–Trend Central. (Found via Ed Cone.)

Related: Blog map of the Washington, DC, area, built around subway station locations.

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Random House soon may not be the only major English-language publisher selling books written with tiny cellphone displays in mind. Simon and Schuster has been testing cellphone books, and Oxford University Press may follow, according to Slashphone.

Related: Wikipedia for mobile access (MobileRead via Pocket PC eBook Watch).

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To intall and use the Librie toolbar, one way to pick up Web pages for transfer to the Librie later on, follow the just-given links to Word files in plain English-not plain or unplain Japanese. Sony’s toolbar method will work only with HTML and Adobe formats. Major thanks to Yann Antonioli, a new Librie owner.

He says: “I could not find how to clear the contents of an eBook from the toolbar.” Anyone have a solution?

I have a speck in my eyes right now and have not tested the instructions, but at first glance they look pretty well done. Feel free to reproduce the instructions elsewhere with credit to Yann and to provide feedback.

Librie for Windows: Next for Yann?

I’ll see if Yann can next pass on the instructions for Librie for Windows. I can muddle along through the program, but it would be great to have more details.

What’s neat for the Librie community is that Yann can identify the functions to which the Librie manual alludes. Then other good folks such as Peter Knowles (author of such programs as booklistgen, a way to transfer files to a MemoryStick for the Librie) can fill in the gaps.

Hey, wouldn’t it be interesting if English-language readers ended up being able to do more with their Libries than those who knew Japanese only?

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“The transatlantic slave trade has created an enduring image of black men and women as transported commodities, and is usually considered the most defining element in the construction of the African Diaspora, but it is centuries of additional movements that have given shape to the nation we know today. This is the story that has not been told.” – The African-American Migration Experience, a multimedia exhibit now online from the New York Public Library.

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“Palo Alto library users can now read the latest best-seller on their laptop or listen to the audio version on their MP3 player.Palo Alto and six other library systems last week launched a free service, which will let library patrons download hundreds of titles in an online digital library.” – Library patrons can download digital literature, in the San Jose Mercury News.

The TeleRead take: OverDrive is powers the site, and the spiffy looks are somewhat like the company’s other efforts such as at the New York Public Library. Smaller publishers, public domain sites and libraries in general would do well to learn from the polished, bookstore-like appearance that OverDrive uses in its library efforts.

Nope, I don’t like everything, some of this actually comes across to me as a little antiseptic, and the coding probably isn’t as much in line with Web standards as it could be. What’s more, people already know how I feel about OverDrive’s role in the DRM Mafia, not to mention its callous treatment of the small publishers it wooed, then drove away with outrageous “storage fees.” Still, credit where due!

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What’s better for public domain literature–many e-book cranked out for recreational readers, or perhaps fewer books prepared with more care?

That’s part of the debate raging on the eBook Community list over Project Gutenberg. One poster says Gutenberg books are fun, and he enjoys ice cream with cherries. I’d side with the “Eat your veggies” side, however. Over the long run there isn’t that much difference in effort between doing things badly and well–it’s just a matter of refining proofing techniques. And as library fodder, typo-ridden works often just won’t cut it. Gutenberg has benefited from the professional, accuracy-oriented approach of Distributed Proofreaders, and I’d like to see more of the same.

Needed: More transparency

Beyond the typo question, how about electronic public domain works that come from different paper editions and don’t even mention this to readers? Isn’t there a need for greater transparency and QC from Gutenberg, whose motto, by the way, happens to be “Fine Literature Digitally Re-Published”? Notice the “re-published.” A Frankentext is a new creation, not a “re.”

I may be expanding this post and would welcome comments from readers.

Meanwhile here’s one question I’m still mulling over. Will free but flawed editions reduce the market for well-proofed hard copy works, and will scholarship suffer?

Campus allies and their needs

Especially with the future threat of still-longer copyright terms, isn’t it important that we public domain types get our house in order for the benefit not just of regular reader but also powerful allies on campus?

Typos in a blog are understandable–goodness knows the TeleBlog sins. But shouldn’t formally published editions of the classics be held to a higher standard?

A Gutenberg positive: While reviewing a page outlining Project Gutenberg’s history and philosophy, I ran across this intriguing passage: “To illustrate our faith in graphics, and in the future, we have gone one step further in our pursuit of what we named ‘Replicator Technology’ TM a few years ago. We would like the end of this phase of Project Gutenberg (with a first 3D application of Replicator Technology), by doing CAT, MRI and XRAY Fluoroscopy scans of something, perhaps a painting, and printing 3D copies.” Cool, but it will help if the 3D replications are accurate from the start.