Earlier I told how the New York Times blew it in making the case for librarians in an Internet era. The librarian in the lead slowed herself down by abandoning Google for a paper encyclopedia. In many cases, yes, librarians can beat the Net, but as fuel for library advocacy, this particular example just didn't fly.

Now, here's one that does--from the LISNews journal of Rochelle Hartman, who works at an Illinois library:

I'm continually surprised at the personal stories that patrons share in the course of trying to find information. Yesterday, a 20-something guy came in, looking for an article about a new Illinois law that extends the statute of limitations for people who, as children, were molested by clerics. I found an article, but wanted to find the statute. Since it's so new, it hadn't been added to the statutes, so it was taking me a long time. While we were looking, the guy, without any sort of prompting, spilled his whole story to me. The armchair psychologist in me was trying to figure out his motive for telling me this very personal story, but regardless of the reason, I found it remarkable and was reminded of the awesome responsibility that sometimes comes to us as information providers. This guy knows nothing about me, my viewpoint, my education or training, but he trusted me to help him with something that would be best handled by a counselor and a lawyer, all because I'm a librarian. This isn't a unique situation--I'm sure you all have similar stories. It's just humbling and, at times, alarming, to realize how much power and authority some people assume librarians have.

"The written word on parchment will last a thousand years. The printed word is on paper. How long will it last? The most you can expect a book of paper to survive is two hundred years..." - Johannes Trithemius, a Medieval monk who waged the valiant battle against paper books--as quoted on Amazon.com from A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World.

The TeleRead take: Longevity, of course, or lack thereof, is a major argument that Luddites use against electronic books, and unless the e-book business gets its format act together, the Luds will be absolutely right. I'm an optimist. What's more, in the preservation area, some real synergy could exist between publishers and librarians. The latter could help assure the permanence of e-books by way of reliable, long-term archiving without the usual commercial pressures.

Toward true permanence

Meanwhile, for a better view of the library scene on the cover of Splendor, please click here. I myself would welcome old books being preserved on paper, not just in electronic formats, so that libraries could take advantage of new scanning technologies and other improved forms of preservation. Who knows what's ahead? Could old physical books someday be reproduced in 3D from electronic archives? In the future, "print on demand" could take on a whole new meaning. So better to warehouse old books in large repositories rather than seeing them vanish the way paper library catalogues did without any efforts to at least capture the annotations (no nostalgia about the catalogues per se, just the annotations).

That said, the intimidating scene on Splendor's cover also reminds me of the stupidity of trying to give every city its own Library of Alexandria, with a large central library of p-books. I myself live in Alexandria--Alexandria, VA, where the city would have been better off to have invested more money in neighborhood branches, and vastly less money in the mini library palace.

The not-so-great Library of Alexandria (VA)

I rarely visit the Alexandria library even though I do make remote use of the library's so-so collection of electronic databases. If it's a pre-1923 book that I want, I'll probably find it through Gutenberg or Blackmask or whatever. And if it's a new book, most likely the library won't have what I need, quite a contrast to Amazon. Better to leave preservation of physical books to major regional and national archives and rely on e-books and print on demand for local libraries--regardless of the modern equivalents of Johannes Trithemius.

Does this mean tossing out existing paper books or depriving children of the enjoyment of pop-up paper books or whatever? Of course not--just redirecting the main focus to words, as opposed to paper, cardboard, and ink. And, yes, physical libraries should remain, especially at the neigbhorhood level. I just see them functioning more as sources of guidance and mentoring and as general community meeting places and as settings for story-telling and local book clubs--and less as p-book warehouses.

The wrong way for libraries to evolve

There are both right ways and wrong ways, however, for libraries to evolve toward electronic books. A good example of the wrong ways is at the University of Texas North Libraries, one branch of which plays up virtual resources at the expense of knowledge, not just p-books. Frustratingly students at NT's Dallas campus may have to use the paper variety after all--via time-consuming interlibrary loans. As much as I love e-books, I'd say UTNL is guilty of some creative mouching. From NTDaily.com via LISnews:

Not all the books in the NT Library catalog are available electronically. In these cases, NT will mail it [requested paper books] to the student's residence free of charge. This service is available only to students attending NT Dallas or students enrolled in off-campus courses.

Cory Doctorow, whose novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom fared well in the p-bookstores after he put it on the Net for free, is at it again.

Now you can download his latest--Eastern Standard Tribe--under a Creative Commons License. This one, too, looks off to a nice start, complete with the requisite Slashdotting. Supported formats on the Net include ASCII, HTML, Printable PDF, PDB for the Palm Digital Media reader, various incarnations for iSilo, and LIT. Paper format is $16.77 from Amazon.

Art is a member of the Eastern Standard Tribe, a secret society bound together by a sleep schedule. Around the world, those who wake and sleep on East Coast time find common cause with one another, cooperating, conspiring, to help each other out, coordinated by a global network of Wi-Fi, instant messaging, ubiquitous computing, and a shared love of Manhattan-style bagels. Or perhaps not. Art is, after all, in the nuthouse. He was put there by a conspiracy of his friends and loved ones, fellow travelers from EST hidden in the bowels of Greenwich Mean Time, spies masquerading as management consultants who strive to mire Europe in oatmeal-thick bureaucracy.

The Sigma Book will go on sale Feb. 20 for 37,900 yen, or around $360, according to info found by our resourceful friends at eBookAd.

Actually, the date mentioned on NE Asia Online is a tad unclear. Feb. 20 perhaps is just an order-taking date for all practical purposes. Other details--including mention of the obnoxious DRM:

Contents that can be read using this device must comply with Matsushita Electric's own original format Sigma-book format or EBI format. They are available at the "Sigma Book" Web site run by Matsushita Electric and "10DaysBook" run by eBOOK Initiative Japan Co, Ltd. At the time of the launch, available contents will be 5,000 items ranging from comics, novels and how-to readings. Matsushita will make available reader applications complying with other e-book formats.

As bundled content, the first volume of "Cyborg 009" (an old Japanese comic) is included. The company plans to sell the device in limited production of 1,000 units by the end of March. After that, it will expand production in proportion to increasing contents to deliver. It plans to sell 100,000 units by the end of fiscal 2005.

Sigma Book is an electronic book that was unveiled in April 2003. It comes with "SD-ePublish," a content protection function designed for SD memory cards. Matsushita Electric improved the software ahead of merchandising. It has two 7.2-in, 1,024 x 768 (XGA)-pixel memory LCD panels located side by side, and can be folded as if it were a real book. The display has 16 degrees of grayscale. The device measures 292mm x 205mm x 12.7mm when it is opened, and 154.5mm x 205mm x 25.4mm when it is folded. It weighs 520g without batteries.

It will be available at bookstores such as Kinokuniya Co, Ltd; Maruzen Co, Ltd; and Matsushita Electric's direct marketing Web site called "Pana Sense."

Cynthia Orr, collection manager for the Cleveland Public Library--which is putting even best-selling books on the Net via Overdrive--will be the next guest of the eBookWorm netcast. "Tune in" on February 19 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. From the Handheld Librarian:

Satisfied patrons have let the library know that they like the ability to carry eBooks along with them while traveling with their laptop or PDA, and find that it is convenient to be able to check out a book without physically visiting the library. In the first week of the service, more than 300 different patrons checked out more than 500 titles and placed another 200 titles on reserve. Some of the most popular books in the collection include fiction by Michael Crichton, Tim LaHaye, Barbara Delinsky, Neil Gaiman, Elmore Leonard and Tony Hillerman. The collection ranges from children's books, Cliff's Notes, business and computer titles, cookbooks and bestsellers.

The CLEVNET Digital Library Connection offers titles for both Adobe Reader and Palm Reader, with MobiPocket coming soon. No special hardware is needed to enjoy an eBook. Free software is available and requires a one-time download. To learn more about these formats or to download the reader software, please click on eBooks at the CPL web site: www.cpl.org.

To enter the online conference room, go to http://www.talkingcommunities.com/entrance.pl?31122688174, type your name (no password needed) and click on enter. A small software applet will download to your computer as you enter the room.

Blackmask, a U.S. e-bookstore that also serves as one of the best sources of free public domain books on the Net, has drawn a rave from Humbul Humanities Hub based at Oxford University. That's not bad for a one-man basement operation.

Just to set the scene, Blackmask's proproprietor notes it's in "in Rockville, MD, where the human genome was mapped, Scott Fitzgerald is buried, and there are literally dozens of Chinese restaurants in which I'm typically the only gweilo eating." As self-described last April, David Moynihan is "30, 6' tall, 200 pounds, and known for hitting a home gym daily. In 1998 I married a journalist with the Voice of America. Our dog's name is Dusty. This site is remotely hosted on a dual P-III Linux box by the good people at Verio."

From Gissing to Doc Savage

Whether it's in search of Lord Macaulay's histories, a George Gissing masterpiece (yes, I'm still on my Gissing kick) or a Doc Savage pulp, Blackmask is one of the most rewarding places to go on the Net. Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald's most famous creation, would be suitably impressed. Remember, Oxford is where Gatsby himself went--albeit briefly--to school. Below is an abstract of the Humbul review by Wanda Wyporska:

The Web Site "Blackmask Online" is a commerical site that enables the user to download ebooks in a variety of formats such as MS-Reader, Acrobat, Rocket eBook, Zip, Silo, Mobipocket, and EasyRead. Many of the books are available at no charge, but others require registration and involve a charge. The site is rather random, but contained nearly 14,000 works at the time of cataloguing. A search facility greatly enhances the site.

"The music industry is giving all it's got to the fight against unauthorized file-sharing. But if you can't kill the beast, why not tame it? Some Internet companies are turning peer-to-peer file-sharing into a legitimate business--and at least one major label, EMI Music, is taking the technology seriously." - AP.

The TeleRead take: Progress! Good example for e-bookdom! Furthermore, there should be a series of seamless connections so that a reader can enjoy an e-book for free if his or her library system enjoys access to it. Otherwise there could be provisions for either the giver or the recipient to pay for the book. Needless to say if you have local libraries involved, there'll be considerable discrepancies in how much material one can access for free--hence, the desirability of a well-stocked national digital library system.

Meanwhile some more details from AP on the music-sharing P2P:

Among companies trying to convince the music industry that P2P doesn't have to be all about piracy is Wippit, a Britain-based music subscription service.

For about $50 a year, subscribers can download any of Wippit's tunes using P2P and save them in as many places they like--an idea that makes many big recording companies nervous. Other services limit copying.

Most of the 200 recording companies that have signed on to Wippit are independent, and there are huge gaps in what music is available.

But EMI, whose artists range from the Rolling Stones to Coldplay, is set to debut most of its catalogue on Wippit in February, said Wippit's chief executive, Paul Myers.

Myers says he's in talks with the four other major labels, and he hopes that two of them will join his service next month, though the deals aren't finalized.

The long-awaited Sigma Book from Matsushita Electric Industrial Company might reach Japanese consumers this month--with a snazzy new foldable screen that you can close like a book.

The cholesteric "no power" LCD technology, which sips juice only when you move on to another page or other changes happen, comes from Kent Displays in Ohio.

Simply put, the Sigma Book might be just the ticket for outdoorsy types--given the sunlight-friendly screen and the tiny sips from the two AA-size batteries, which reportedly can last as long as six months. More on the screen: It consists of two monochrome LCD panels side by side, and apparently the contrast ratio might be as high as 20 to 1--not as high as alternatives, but presumably enough to read from, hour after hour. What more, the viewing angle is extra wide. And of course, you can take in a fair amount of text at once without scrolling.

Alas, rigid copy protection is another "feature" of the Sigma. But I suspect that the same tech will eventually show up in the Panasonic-labelled hardware or under other names without the same strings attached. More from the Japan Times:

The product, which displays pages of books downloaded from the Net, can be folded shut like a regular book, the company said. Sony Corp. plans to release a similar product in May.

With a large-capacity memory card, about 20 books can be downloaded onto a Sigma Book and as many as 150 books in the case of the Sony device. To protect copyrights, the books cannot be copied or printed.

Industry observers, including Yoshitaka Ukita, a Sony official in charge of promoting e-books, believe e-book readers will become ubiquitous, even though Japanese are believed to be reading much less recently.

"In view of the fact that annual revenues in Japan's publishing industry in 2002 came to 2.4 trillion yen compared with about 600 billion yen in the music industry, the potential demand for e-book readers is very high," Ukita said.

The domestic e-book market has been expanding rapidly. At present, it mainly involves reading downloaded texts on a personal computer or mobile phone handset.

Matsushita, which sells consumer products under the National and Panasonic brand names, intends to make content a revenue-earner--the SD card will be encrypted with a digital rights management key that controls user access, according to the report. At first, only comics and fiction will be available at the launch of the e-book.

Time for book publishers to present the Open eBook Forum with a deadline for a Universal Consumer Format? I myself hope that the OeBF will act on its own without dragging its feet, given some rather commonsensical thoughts from exec director Nick Bogaty. But just for inspiration, here's a snippet from Billboard:

The music industry is pushing bitter technology rivals--most notably Microsoft and Apple--to shake hands in the interest of promoting digital downloads, Billboard has learned.

Hardware makers and digital format developers, including many traditional adversaries, are engaged in private talks aimed at meeting the music industry's goal of compatibility among competing digital music devices by 2005.

"There's a substantial discussion going on among these companies about interoperability," says Paul Vidich, executive VP of strategic planning and business development for Warner Music Group.

Consumers are embracing commercial digital music in increasing numbers, and the trend is likely to be aided by a Pepsi-Apple promotion launching Feb. 1 during Super Bowl XXXVIII. But incompatibility among certain digital music services and portable players remains an obstacle.

"Consumers are going to demand that there be interoperability in devices and software players," Vidich says...

Just recovering from skepticism created by the dotcom hype, the mainstream media are starting to acknowledge that, yes, E Ink and related technoloies are on the way. Why, they're even mentioning e-books again without a never-will-fly 'tude.

Today's Washington Post carries this headline: Flexible Display Screens Readied for Production--and the subhead "Roll 'Em, Fold 'Em, Stick 'Em in Your Pocket: Long-Envisioned Plastic Sheets Will Make E-Newspapers, E-Books a Reality." Hold on. I thought e-books already were reality. Have I been reading countless books--from David Copperfield to a Warren Harding-inspired novel--off a little mirage?

I'll be interested to see how the skeptics react when E-Ink and other technologies finally do let people read books easily off reflected light and with a decent contrast ratio. Whoops. There goes the-staring-into-a-light argument, which isn't so valid anyway with the present generation of easy-on-the-eye LCDs.

As for the durability argument against e-books, a Philips exec tells the Post that when dropped, a plastic rollable display won't shatter but will simply flutter to the ground.

Now for the fun part of the article:

Consumer applications, such as e-maps and e-newspapers that roll up like window shades, remain a few years off, but a stiff version of e-paper is about to hit the market. This spring, Sony is expected to release an e-book using Philips and E Ink technology -- an electronic reader about the size of a paperback that can be loaded with a library full of literature without cutting down a single tree. E-books would also have the advantage of being potentially searchable by key words and could have built-in dictionaries.

Analysts envision a future in which students will trade their bulky backpacks full of books for a single all-purpose e-text. And with the capacity to download a few comic book programs as well, students may even free themselves from the age-old hassle of hiding the latest issue of Spiderman comics inside the cover while pretending to study.

A poignant post appeared on the eBook Community List last week--from an intelligent elderly man with arthritis who lives on Social Security Disability.

Do you doubt the usefulness of e-books for the appreciative and deserving elderly? Even those who don't need large "print" on their screens? Well, here's the post the man wrote--someone who literally must choose between an e-book-capable PDA and heating oil:

I've been lurking for some time. Interesting posts, though some are beyond me.

I have a lot of eBooks in zipped or text form. Lots of Gutenberg stuff. Early Wizard of Oz, etc. I'm 62 years and I prefer the older fiction. I've also had arthritis for 39 years and am currently on Social Security Disability.

I have a used computer, just good enough to get online with.

My problem is that I'd like to pick a decent eBook reader for around or under $50. I may not manage until warmer weather when I don't worry about heating oil costs.

One of the eBay stores has a Palm Pilot fot $50. The Franklin is cheaper, but is it reliable?

I got one of the early Rocket eBooks at a bargain on eBay. But I can't get my older computer to recognize it when it's plugged in a port.

Any help would be appreciated.