"Getting books scanned quickly is not a problem for us since we can outsource it. Our major problem is creating the five different ebook editions of the book, MS Reader, PDF, PalmDoc, HieBook and Mobi. This takes time and effort by highly skilled people who require the knowledge to mark up the text properly, create the required files and then put it through the ebook convertors to create the final ebook editions. This currently takes us three to four hours per book which is far too long and costly." - Chad Sichello of Second Chance Publishers, posting to the eBook Community List.

The TeleRead take: Don't believe that the Tower of eBabel is a tax on publishers, among others? What better illustration than the example above? In fact, I suspect that the "three to four hours" is rather brief compared to the ordeal that other publishers suffer.
posted by David Rothman at 11:53 AM | permanent link

A reminder: Got news of genuine interest to the e-book world? Or views? Want to comment on an item we ran? E-mail dr@teleread.org.
posted by David Rothman at 11:32 AM | permanent link

A $10,000 grant from ALA will go to create a project called "E-Books Open Up the World of Print to Visually Impaired Readers."

The one-year effort will help determine how e-books can aid the blind, visually impaired, the dyslexic and the physically challenged--a topic thoroughly worth exploring, since e-books can help special-needs people even more than the population at large.

Coordinating the project for the Mid Illinois Talking Book Center will be Tom Peters of TAP Information Services. He'll work with staff from the center (especially Lori Bell, another e-book-hip librarian) as well as OverDrive, the distributor-retailer which is fast making a name for itself with attractive library-related sites for e-books, such as the collaboration with the Cleveland Public Library. Check out the fine work that OverDrive and partners are already doing on the Web for the Illinois project for the print-impaired.

Significantly, Tom coauthored a book on e-book usability, and he and Lori have engaged in earlier studies on e-books for the sighted. We need more efforts like this. E-books have their share of myths floating about, and there is no substitute for actual hands-on work.

The full name of the award is the ALA SIRSI Library Leader in Technology Grant. A 24K gold-framed citation be given at American Library Association Conference in Orlando on June 29 at 5:45 p.m.

More details at The Hand Held Librarian. Also see information from the project's Web site.

Memo to software vendors, especially Mobipocket: If approached by the MITBC project, please give 'em your full cooperation. Ultimately, of course, I hope that a standard XML-based format will be in use.
posted by David Rothman at 4:44 AM | permanent link

Oh, I like this! North Carolina now wants Michael Eisner fired as boss of Disney--and has told state pension fund managers to vote against him. It joins funds in half a dozen other states, including California and New York, already committed to this noble cause.

Now, imagine the same tool used against the Sonny Bono Copyight Term Extension Act, which will send billions to the copyright elite over the years at the expense of schools, libraries and consumers in the Tar Heel state and elsewhere.

Time for state pension managers to pressure Disney and other big corporations into calling for a repeal or at least mitigation of Bono--for example, via the Public Domain Enhancement Act? Our schools and libraries don't need to pay Hollywood an eternal tax! Reasonable fees for reasonable copyright terms? Sure. But not 20 years extra, forever!

Remember, lobbying by Eisner's henchmen was among the major reasons why we got the Bono act in the first place.
posted by David Rothman at 2:30 PM | permanent link

For as little as 25 cents in some cases, you can now buy audios of Project Gutenberg texts without onerous DRM (those two words go together all too often).

"New unabridged audiobooks are released every Friday in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis formats," says TellTale Weekly. And you can copy them to your MP3 player, your PDA, your desktop, you name it, without worrying about brain-dead DRM schemes. A lesson for the big-timers in the e-book biz?

First titles released today are are:

--Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry
--Stories from Asheville vol 1 by Justin Meckes
--A Dog's Tale by Mark Twain
--The Glove and the Lions by James Leigh Hunt

Hey, folks, nice timing! Fits in with TeleRead's interest in the needs of the blind and vision-impaired.

(Via Boing Boing.)

posted by David Rothman at 1:24 PM | permanent link

Our old friend David Faucheux, who has been blind since youth, dropped by the TeleBlog yesterday and said that he had trouble navigating it with his Jaws screen-reader--perhaps in part due to our three-column layout. Hey, that won't do. So overnight, via a new RSS feed, we've created a special one-column version, which, as long as we're at it, also offers large type for the vision-impaired. Could be that we won't worry about the large type if enough VI folks write in and say, "Hey, my browser already takes care of that." Speak up!

A major attraction of e-books, at least those that are ASCII/HTML/XML-based, is the ease with which speech synthesizers can deal with them. Know anyone with vision problems? Tell 'em about the glories of a well-stocked national digital library system--the ultimate form of literary mainstreaming, so to speak. Feedback welcomed from all concerned!

The big question: Why didn't David complain earlier? Easy, beyond his usual politeness. He was years behind in his Web use, having gone through LIS school at Louisiana State University without even enjoying convenient access to to a suitably equipped, up-to-date computer he could call his own. Linky sites like blogs are a particular challenge even today. Now, however, he's finally partaking of the Web, thanks to a good-hearted Sara Laughlin, editor of the ALA's Interface magazine, who donated a computer to the cause. Hey, David, speak up! We'll do our best. Eventually--I don't know when--this site will get a full makeover so that virtually every page is blind friendly!

Question for public libraries with blogs: Are you taking care to address the needs of the blind and VI folks?
posted by David Rothman at 3:34 AM | permanent link

"While widely available in English, something as simple as e-book conversion software is still unavailable for Arabic. In a region where print censorship remains widespread, e-books--produced and distributed online--are the simplest way to bypass authorities’ efforts to control their populations’ ideas and thoughts. A tiny fraction of Microsoft’s $1 billion could do wonders in creating a real information revolution in the Arab region by posting important and useful content in Arabic and other non-English languages on the net." - Daoud Kuttab, in the Middle East Times.

The TeleRead take: The $1 billion is the size of an agreement Microsoft signed with the United Nations Development Program. Be interesting to see how much of it goes for e-books. TeleRead has long advocated that the U.S. government itself assist in the establishment of well-stocked national digital libraries in developing countries--with a healthy focus on local publishing, rather than simply imported books and other items. No panaceas, however. Even with e-books, censorship issues will arise, and for that we can partly thank the DMCAists, who, by encouraging privacy invasions in the name of copyright protection, have made life easier for snoopy and sometimes-murderous dictators.
posted by David Rothman at 2:56 AM | permanent link

How to do DRM in a way that protects consumers' rights, not just software companies'? InfoWorld columnist and blogger Ed Foster and his readers have some ideas.
posted by David Rothman at 1:24 PM | permanent link

"It's comforting to have a paper book. It's more fixed in the mind than if you read it off a screen." - Michael Jackson, vice president of fine-paper businesses at Weyerhaeuser Company, as quoted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Bill Virgin.

The TeleRead take: Salting up the wounds, Virgin says: "Books and the paper that goes into them were supposed to be another victim of technology (I can recall writing several columns in 2000 on the subject of e-books and the potential for piracy). They may still someday supplant the paper version, but for now they're still a very small niche product."

Why "niche"

That's what happens when the e-book industry--still toy-sized with only $10-$20 million in global sales--wages stupid format wars and tortures consumers with onerous DRM.

Meanwhile perhaps Bill Virgin can check out The DRM Maginot Line: Pirates using PDF images of paper books--without OCR needed.

XML as an anti-piracy weapon

Well-done books in screen-friendly XML formats, such as a consumer-level version of the Open eBook Publication Structure, would be one way to discourage the popularity of image-based PDF as a pirate's tool. Yes, there is a danger of e-books being pirated. But nowadays p-books are pretty fair game and may actually be easier to spread around than digital books protected with DRM Lite.

(Found via eBookAd.)
posted by David Rothman at 11:52 AM | permanent link

The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will drain billions of dollars over the years from schools and libraries and consumers in general. Time for library advocate Bill Gates, Sr. to take a stand? And as someone who is pro-estate tax, mightn't he just want to consider the injustices of further enriching the Gershwin heirs and other members of the copyright elite at the expense of ordinary Americans? Hey, Mr. Gates, that was an inspirational speech to the Public Library Association, but some pro-library lobbying against Bono--at the personal level, no need to involve the Gates Foundation--wouldn't hurt, either.
posted by David Rothman at 11:23 AM | permanent link

Well, another digital divide report is out, this one from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and partners, including the sponsoring Gates Foundation. And guess what. The report, released in a screen-hostile PDF format, fixates on physical schools and libraries as sources of knowledge.

I'm for more library funding, not less, but policymakers would do well to consider one of the places where students and the rest of us absorb knowledge--home!

And that should mean a concerted, TeleRead-style effort to popularize e-books and other forms of online knowledge for use on PDAs, tablets and desktops at home. If electronic media are easily available there, won't they contribute far more to family-level literacy than merely an approach requiring tired, already-overworked parents to make constant trips to the library? Shouldn't libraries be providing both research-related savvy and technical skills toward this goal? What happens if, in the near future, richer familes can provide children with easy at-home access to books but lower-income families are left behind?

Needed: More library outreach

Whose convenience should come first? That of library workers? Or that of parents and children?

A place exists for librarians--I want to see more of them, not fewer--but in many cases it might not even be the library. Perhaps more of them should be out in the schools and community centers working directly as mentors to the students and parents. Greater cooperation between public libraries and school systems would help. I've already discussed the inadequacies of school libraries. Imagine all the good that more sharing of resources and people could accomplish. It won't happen if librarians just park themselves in the customary buidings.

Neighborhood libraries: Hardly obsolete

Don't get me wrong. Neighborhood library buildings, as opposed to downtown library palaces in the Seattle vein, are essential as community meeting places and as places to which children can retreat for the peace and quiet that they might not always encounter at home. I can think of story-telling hours, too, and wonderful opportunities for face-to-face guidance. But please: a little more concern for the mothers and fathers who often are just plain too tired to take their children to the library. Or for people who, for health reasons or otherwise, can't make it to the library period.

Must families or the elderly--a population segment about to increase vastly in number--go to the library to watch TV? No? Well, then, why should they need to go there to choose and read the books and other items of interest to them? Bring the e-books home!

Related and encouraging: Libraries offer books online, from the Oakland Press.

Related and discouraging: News of a decline in the number of Black librarians. Perhaps if more librarians came from low-income and minority backgrounds, libraries would be more responsive on the e-book front and in other ways.

Yo, IMLS: Can you spell H-T-M-L? I'd rather have the option of reading off a screen, as opposed to having to print out the PDF.

(Found via Resource Shelf.)
posted by David Rothman at 10:10 AM | permanent link

Jessica Litman author of Digital Copyright: Protecting Intellectual Property on the Internet, is one of the leading authorities on U.S. copyright law. Here, via an excerpt from her new interview with GrepLaw, are her thoughts on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you're in a state about to hold a presidential primary, why not encourage the local media to ask the candidates about the DMCA and related issues she discusses in the full GrepLaw article?

Things have turned out somewhat worse for consumers than I expected them to. Before the DMCA, the copyright law didn't have a lot to say about the behavior of consumers reading, viewing and listening to works. Because the DMCA gives copyright owners a cause of action for consumer circumvention of access-control technology, copyright owners have concluded that they have (and should have) a right to control who gains access to their works under what circumstances. Instead of making copyright owners more willing to release their works online in digital formats, they have become even more reluctant to allow consumers access to digital copies unless they can control what consumers do with those copies. Although the access-control provisions of the DMCA were intended to protect copyright owners from people who gained unauthorized initial access (the metaphorical "burglars" who break into one's house to steal one's books), the provisions have been enforced to prevent licensed users from making unlicensed uses of works. Meanwhile, in the "broadcast flag" campaign, copyright owners have sought to extend their control over when and under what circumstances consumers can see their works.

Opponents of the DMCA managed to get a provision included in the bill to ameliorate the squeeze on fair use; it called for a triennial rulemaking by the Copyright Office to establish temporary exemptions from the anti-circumvention provisions. In earlier eras, the Copyright Office has seen its mission as representing the public interest on copyright matters. The current Copyright Office General Counsel, though, appears to view his job as protecting copyright owners from academics, librarians, archivists and computer scientists. He has insisted (despite contrary language in the statute and evidence in the legislative history) that the law prohibits the recognition of the sort of exemptions that might help to preserve fair use.

Moreover, the once unthinkable idea that copyright owners have and should have control over how and when consumers read, view and listen to their works has encouraged the idea that filing lawsuits against 1500 ordinary consumers is the appropriate response to widespread noncommercial unlicensed exchange of copies of works.

(Via Copyfight.)

posted by David Rothman at 1:53 PM | permanent link

Oh no! Pirates are scanning paper books without even bothering to OCR them.

And they're getting pretty good results via the sacred PDF format--so dear to major software companies and certain publishers, especially with onerous DRM in place.

The pirates themselves couldn't care less about DRM. Via image-based PDF, they simply want to spread the stuff around with minimal work for themselves or their readers. Just plain good marketing, even if no money is involved.

Pirated Kama Sutra

Via a download from UseNet, I've just seen a magnificent but perfectly illegal copy of Anne Hooper's Kama Sutra. Textbooks are also being pirated. Best candidates for this treatment: The overpriced ones.

Oh, what a farce DRM is turning to be--an electonic Maginot Line. The pirates just roll through Belgium. What's next? A move by publishers away from paper books? Whoops. Hey, isn't the devish medium of e-books supposed to be more of a risk?

Rx for publishers: Convenient-to-use, fairly priced electronic editions of textbooks and other offerings. And if a TeleRead-style approach can reduce the incentive for piracy--by putting thousands of copyrighted books on the Net for free, with provisions for fair compensation to rights holders--then so much the better.
posted by David Rothman at 10:48 AM | permanent link

OverDrive is branching out into audio books, which it's unveiling at The Public Library Association Tenth National Conference this week in Seattle. But already a high-profile librarian in the Chicago area is worried, rightly, about the use of a proprietary format. Alas, the topic is as timely as ever.

In a news release, OD Content Director Pamel Turner says: "Working with the Microsoft Windows Media format means we will enable libraries to obtain rights to provide patrons access to premium audio book titles on a tremendous range of devices including PCs, PDAs, portable audio players, Smartphones, and the new Portable Media Center." But Jenny Levine of Shifted Librarian fame raises serious questions in her blog

Conflict with non-Bill-blessed Treo 600

Jenny says she'll "pretty much" have to "live vicariously" through other people's joys with the audio "because WMA files don't work on my Treo 600 or my Archos Jukebox. That's the problem with proprietary formats and current Digital Rights Management (DRM) products...."

Hey, it's good to see OverDrive entering the audio area, but, gee, folks, when will you get it: Librarians aren't the biggest fans of the proprietary approach with the usual DRM hassles beyond the compatibility issue. And consumers aren't, either. Time for audio books folks to settle on a standard format with, if need be, DRM--ideally a DRM Lite approach, as opposed to the Draconian kind so beloved to Microsoft and kin?

The plus side: A sample (click to hear audio if you and your machine are Bill-blessed) sounded great, and I commend OverDrive for not shying away from a grim but important subject such as cancer.

Also in fairness to OverDrive: Yes, the audio books biz is tilted toward proprietary formats right now. Perhaps OverDrive could make a name for itself by working to buck the trend. A good role model might be e-book sellers that are taking care to educate publishers about the drawbacks of the proprietary DRMed approach. Like e-books, audio books could do much better without all the hoops through which customers have to jump.
posted by David Rothman at 7:53 AM | permanent link

"...talking about technology with patrons alerts them to the current state of libraries. 'Hey, we’re here, we’re hip, we know what you need, so use us dammit!' Asking about people's laptops has opened the door for me to talk about remote access to library databases, and books on MP3, among many other things." - LISNews.

The TeleRead take: This library world needs more folks like the writer above and fewer boosters of librarysauruses.
posted by David Rothman at 2:51 AM | permanent link

Yo, Microsoft! Doubt that your e-book DRM can be a great way to turn people into Linux users? Read this horror story from Red Beard, the pseudonym for a European living in Brazil. No, despite the name, he is not a pirate, just a POed end user. - David Rothman

I never thought I'd be visiting the Lindows site until Monday night when I was launching Microsoft Reader for first time since November 2003 to access one of several Secure Microsoft Format books I'd purchased. Up popped a message to go to...

www.microsoft.com/reader/update

...to update installed Reader version 2.1.1. No purchased Secure Format books in the My Library folder could be opened.

So I closed the Reader app and ran through all Microsoft Reader online verifications. They said all was okay. Yet Reader still refused to open any purchased books.

Before uninstalling and re-installing Reader, I thought it might be smart to log in to my Passport e-mail account--which I never use and only opened to obtain Microsoft Reader activation. Then I requested activation of Microsoft Reader as though I'd never activated it in the first place. This worked!

Below are my hunches why this occurred. All the possibilities would be unacceptable to a normal Joe who doesn't want to live in an Orwellian world. Furthermore, I wonder how many normal Joes would have encountered this simple solution.

(1) Microsoft Passport requires frequent log-ins, say, once every ninety days.

(2) On same Windows XP HE Notebook PC device used for original Reader activation, I had later installed an external hard drive. I'd added an external Seagate FireWire/USB 2.0 combo drive in December 2003--duly formatted and partitioned within Windows XP with administrator privileges. Did this befuddled Microsoft Reader activation as a separate device activation (just as a root hard drive reformat probably would) even though I never changed any of the Windows XP or Reader configuration settings?

(3) If the latter hypothesis is true, Microsoft's permitted six-only Reader activations will one day leave someone 'up the creek--unable to read eBooks they've paid for. I could find no documented warning of this.

Anyway, I'm not waiting and am actively checking out all alternatives like Linux.

* * *

The TeleRead take: Remember to put this in a total Microsoft context. We know how faithful Microsoft wanted to be Windows 98 customers, and undoubtedly the same will apply to Windows XP. Simply put, Microsoft is a tech company with a vested interest in obsolescence and a steady cashflow from Passport-style services and software upgrades. Its goals dramatically clash with those of users, who, alas, given Microsoft's dominance of both software and apps, often have no choice. They may hate Microsoft software. But if employers and clients use it, they're very possibly up the creek.

If nothing else, Red Beard's experience is yet more proof that Microsoft values its DRM, Passport and the rest over e-books. Are you a publisher? Frustrated that you can't sell more e-books? Well, Microsoft's shortsightedness is among the reasons why this is only a $10-$20 million industry. You suffer even if you avoid the consumer-hostile LIT format. After all, the horrors of the LIT experience are great ammo for Luddites, who use this to badmouth e-books in general.

Related: Copy, right?, from the Sidney Morning Herald, via LISNews.
posted by David Rothman at 2:00 AM | permanent link

Alas, The Last Book isn't here yet. So good writing is especially important if you're to keep the attention of e-book readers--given the limitations of PDAs and all that. To the rescue comes an old p-book hand, Elmore Leonard, with rules fit for novels in all media. Found via LISNews.
posted by David Rothman at 5:30 PM | permanent link

Could small mammals threaten Seattle's new librarysaurus or at least equivalents in other cities?

Imagine all the e-books that the $159 million--spent on glass, concrete, shelves, book conveyors and the other machinery, paper and ink--could have bought.

I wonder if enough library money will still be left in Seattle to send a stray staffer or two to learn more about the mammals via the Public Library Conference that the Open eBook Forum is holding on March 16 in New York City. Let's hope that the librarians at the conference will encourage the OeBF folks to get the format and DRM stuff right. Otherwise the dinos will win after all.

Reminder: TeleRead is for, not against, well-funded libraries. But let's look ahead and work toward less money going into library palaces and more for actual books and staffers. Yes, some of the books could be paper--for example, pop-up books for kids. But the real future is electronic.

The best solution would a mix of e-books and more and better-funded neighborhood libraries, which taxpayers and their kids can enjoy without all the hassles of a trip downtown.

Physical libraries in neighborhoods are a "must" as community gathering places and settings for story-telling hours and book clubs and warm, in-person hand holding. More money could go also toward expanded school libraries and more cooperation between schools and public libraries. But library palaces of the Seattle variety are industrial-age relics that society can ill afford, especially when e ink tech is just around corner and will only be getting much better.

An interim step: Yes, I know. A well-stocked national digital library in the TeleRead vein isn't here yet. But to meet the needs of researchers and library patrons using interlibrary loans, low-cost book warehouses could be built in inexpensive locations at a fraction of the cost of a library palaces. What Seattle has is a gold-plated warehouse.

(Via LISNews.)
posted by David Rothman at 12:21 PM | permanent link

"The year's gee-whiz award goes to Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, whose company showed a full-fledged Windows computer the size of a videocassette. The MiniPC FlipStart weighs just under one pound, yet runs Windows XP Professional and contains a 1 gHz Transmeta Crusoe processor, 256 MB of random-access memory, a 30 GB hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi networking." - Detroit Free Press.

The TeleRead take: Other stats: Just six inches wide and four inches deep and an inch thick. The 5.6-inch screen displays two-thirds of a page. Price: Between $1,500 and $2K. Let's hope that comes down soon. With the screen in the portrait mode, just what a nifty e-book tablet this could be! Also think about the educational portential when the price from FlipStart is right. Far lighter, far smaller, than a full book bag! An auxiliary keyboard could meet heavy-duty typing needs.
posted by David Rothman at 11:29 AM | permanent link

The smugness of outfits like Microsoft--how pathetically antiquated its Reader is!--isn't the only reason the industry is in the blahs. Nor is the DMCA mess. More VC funding also could help, and luckily things seem to be thawing out somewhat. More at Red Herring (registration required).
posted by David Rothman at 8:47 AM | permanent link

I'll let others dissect the basic specifics of the ruling against 321 Studios. But like it or not, the anti-copying ruling very much applies to e-books.

What the court has said is that 321 can't sell a program to make it easier to back up DVDs, given the existence of the DMCA--which prohibits even backups in most cases. Some of the same anti-fair-use arguments, alas, could be made against, say, the badly needed Convert Lit. I'd rather that not be so. That's just the way it is as Capitol Hill willed it.

The irony is that the DMCAish laws actually harm the industry by encouraging consumer-hostile practices.

Boycotting "protected" books

Because I can't legally translate e-books in Microsoft Reader and other proprietary formats into durable open formats for backups, I just don't buy 'em! Freebies? Sure. I'll take what's out there for free or check out the library offerings of KnowBetter.com, and perhaps in the future if the need arises, I'll buy copy-protected books in proprietary formats. But not so far. When will the e-book industry learn? Remember--if a customer must buy a backup, that's less money for purchase of a new book and perhaps exposure to different writers.

The failure this week of my SanDisk memory card for my Dell Axim just reinforces my skepticism toward the combination of the proprietary approach and copy-protection. Luckily I was within my limits on the number of machines I could write the material to--so I could summon up backups. But I wonder about the future, as I move on to other machines. I will say that Adobe and Mobipocket have allowed more flexibility in the copy-protection area than Microsoft has. And Palm, of course, has no limit. Still, I'd feel much more comfortable being able to back up into a nonproprietary format, which also would help if e-book hardware and operating systems changed radically, which I expect they will over the years.

The political angle

We don't have to put up with the DMCA or the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act--not if we can wake up the public and the appropriate lobbyists in the Real World. Even major education associations didn't know about Bono. They know now; I've made sure of that.

You can do your part. If John Kerry or Sen. Edwards is about to come to your town, try to educate the local media in advance. See if reporters can ask 'em why local schools, libraries and consumers should be sending billions more to the copyright gentry over the years. Why can't Kerry and Edwards at least support the Public Domain Enhancement Act?

Ask Edwards to explain the more than $900K in soft money that his PAC received from Hollywood producer Steve Bing. Neither the Edwards people nor Bing's office will offer an explanation.

I've already been in touch with California activists to see if they can encourage Kerry and Edwards to get their Net policies to be more in line with their so-called "populism."

Email me if you live in a crucial primary state and want to make a difference.

Tip: Check out some handy pages for catching up with local media and pols.
posted by David Rothman at 7:33 AM | permanent link

Which fonts look best on the screen--whether on the Web or in an electronic book? Accessible Web Typography, a new e-book from Jim Byrne, really focuses on the Web. But many of the precepts there would apply to e-books as well.

Byrne deals with classic questions such as serif vs. nonserif and the perennial issue of how much control to allow users over the selection of fonts. Among his other jobs, he has worked as a disability specialist, and that's a positive. The vision-impaired are the canaries in the coal mine. If you can make your Web site or e-book "safe" for them, then it will mostly likely be readable for the population at large.

In a laudable marketing move, Byrne has put his book online for free on the Web in HTML, while offering an "up-to-date PDF version for $5 for printing and online reading." I'm hardly the biggest fan of PDF since in most usages it does not offer reader as much control as an HTMLish approach. In this case, however, PDF would make sense for printing or for exact reproduction of examples.

A visual Elements of Style

I'm going by my quick impressions of the HTML book, but what I see looks promising--a kind of visual Elements of Style reminding people of the classic basics.

Adding to the allure of the book, at least the online version, are readers' comments, along with links to external resources. Too bad TeleRead isn't in existence--so readers could be more certain of the stability of the external links. But that's a nit. This book is definitely worth checking out.

Three other items to consider, based on the subject matter: a book called Building Accessible Web Sites, as well as the articles Best Fonts for the Screen and Determining the Best Online Font for Older Adults.

And two reminders: First, remember that science can go only so far on typographical matters--the authors are sharing their opinions, and I don't necessarily agree with all of them. Second, don't ever forget that Web sites and books will be viewed on a variety of devices. A flickery 60 Hz CRT with 800 X 600 resolution will be a world apart from an upscale high-res Tablet PC.
posted by David Rothman at 6:24 AM | permanent link

The e-book industry--solely in need of a Linux alternative to the standard operating systems--could benefit from a just-announced partnership between Red Hat and Wind River. Let's hope, of course, that the resultant Red Hat Embedded Linux is reasonably priced. May it be competitive with Palm OS6 Cobalt and whatever Microsoft has around the bend. High-res capablities won't hurt. More at CNet.
posted by David Rothman at 3:44 AM | permanent link

Is a Palm-based tablet computer on the way? Almost surely at some point. The Cobalt operating system from PalmSource is to work on form factors beyond the existing PDAs and mobile phones and will potentially display up to 32,000 X 32,000 pixels--far more than the 320 X 480 maximum of the current Palms. PalmSource EMA says it's even looking ahead to virtual paper.

Jean-Marc Holder, director of marketing with PalmSource EMEA, gave an interview with Computer Business Review Online. He's quoted as describing the Tablet PC design from Microsoft as "the wrong solution to the right problem." Hey, does this mean that we'll finally see good e-book-reading tablets based on the Palm OS for well under $500? And if that happens, will embedded Linux machines be still cheaper?

Related: Palm OS 6 Cobalt Overview: The Palm OS Future, from Palminfocenter.com.

About apps: Palminfocenter.com says: "Palm OS Cobalt will continue to ship with the standard Palm PIM applications the Palm platform is known for. They have all been updated and are now based fully ARM native code. All the applications will also have built in support for the dynamic input area to expand the viewing area." Wonder how PalmReader will evolve in other ways--to take advantage of the new OS and accompanying software.
posted by David Rothman at 7:13 PM | permanent link

"The psychology of the recording industry, like that of book publishing, is now so dependent on blockbuster sales that the idea of profitability based on modest sales across a diverse catalog has nearly vanished. The business depends on the hundred-year flood, not a steady rain." - New York Times editorial today.

Well put! TeleRead, even more than e-books inherently, would allow publishers to have a sustainable business model without so heavy a need for the one-hundred year flood. The best form of rain-making, of course, is steady encouragement of reading as an activity--an observation that totally ties in with the item immediately below. Well-stocked libraries, catering to children's needs and interests, along with those of the rest of us, would help. So would copyright laws that respected the needs of writers as a whole, not just the estates of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gershwin and the like. Yes, genius is rare and needs to be cherished. But since when has it been reliably rewarded during the lifetimes of its possessors? You can't reduce this to pat, Hollywood-style formulas.
posted by David Rothman at 12:52 PM | permanent link

A prestigious award from the American Library Association has gone to Cynthia Orr, the collection manager at the Cleveland Public Library. Ms. Orr appeared on eBookWorm last week to discuss the library's experiment with home access to best-selling e-books and others.

Nope, the news release announcing the award does not mention e-books, but the experiment is in line with her past innovations. Ms. Orr was codeveloper of the popular Bookbrowser.com, which Barnes & Noble acquired.

Bestowed annually by Reference and User Services Association within ALA, the Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award recognizes notable contributions within the area of library services to adults. RUSA praised Ms. Orr's "creativity and enthusiasm, particularly in reader's advisory services," and noted her openness to new technology.
posted by David Rothman at 2:12 AM | permanent link