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.)
posted by David Rothman at 4:36 AM | permanent link

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.
posted by David Rothman at 1:48 AM | permanent link

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.")
posted by David Rothman at 3:41 AM | permanent link

How about this--a print-on-demand network for those who want physical copies of free documentation? Check out a NewsForge item. (Via eBookAd.)
posted by David Rothman at 10:22 AM | permanent link

"...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.)
posted by David Rothman at 6:08 AM | permanent link

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."
posted by David Rothman at 12:13 AM | permanent link

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.
posted by David Rothman at 5:37 AM | permanent link

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).
posted by David Rothman at 5:22 AM | permanent link

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?
posted by David Rothman at 4:38 AM | permanent link

"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.
posted by David Rothman at 9:57 AM | permanent link

"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!
posted by David Rothman at 9:34 AM | permanent link

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.
posted by David Rothman at 5:25 AM | permanent link

Check out the mSpace Classial Music Browser. Now imagine the same for e-books, especially with standards to help make this a reality sooner and in a more useful form. Go here for more background on the browser.
posted by David Rothman at 2:51 AM | permanent link

Good-bye, Hunter. I never knew you, but oh what a master you'd have been at hyperlinking if only you'd been born later, or less set in your Gonzo ways.

From Blogcritics: "We all knew Hunter could go any day. What I expected was a headline like this: 'Gonzo journalist shot by police after consuming hundreds of hits of LSD and attempting to paint murals on Aspen police cars'...."

The Wikipedia at work: Within a few hours of the self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Thompson entry already had an update. Now to see the blog posts that follow, especially John Perry Barlow's.
posted by David Rothman at 2:06 AM | permanent link

Both TeleRead and the ePubishing blog have noted the usefulness of e-books for aging people with bad eyesight. You can blow up the print as large as you want--and even change the font style, if the software is right. This is quite timely. Suddenly some U.S. publishers are thinking they can pump up mediocre sales by enlarging the print. (The Guaridan, via LISNews.)
posted by David Rothman at 1:52 AM | permanent link

Paul Topping helps audio book-readers get the pronunciation right. - Audiobooks Have Their Henry Higgers, in the New York Times.
posted by David Rothman at 1:44 AM | permanent link

One argument for a TeleRead-style approach is that content-providers actually might be better off with a library model. Just how many separate subscriptions to newspapers and the rest will you be able to afford if pay-to-read really catches on--especially with all the cable and telecom charges? Among the "skips" in the case of younger users: The paper edition of the daily newspaper. (Via TechDirt and Steve Outing.)
posted by David Rothman at 1:05 AM | permanent link

Jon Noring has explained why the $50 e-book-reading computer with a high-res screen and other fancy trimmings won't be with us soon. But what about a $50 stripped-down device? The ePublishing blog has its own perspective. Excerpt: "A dedicated ebook reader does not even need PDA functions. So all of that can bring the costs down. At some point you need economies of scale to kick in, which I think will happen if the Chinese government proceeds with its plan to put an ebook reader in the hands of all school children in China and eliminate paper textbooks."

Also of interest at ePublishing: Publishers Look to Up-Size Fading Market.
posted by David Rothman at 2:14 PM | permanent link

The Librie's screen contrast doesn't live up to media hype, but it's still a fine machine for enjoying The Souls of Black Folk, the W.E.B. Du Bois classic, for which my fonts are now just right.

A genuine paper-white background would be better, of course. However, the grayish one at least makes me feel as if I'm reading off an old first edition. More helpfully, I can see 350 words on the screen at once in Helvetica because the characters are so sharp. The Librie is just the ticket for reading Du Bois's long, poetic paragraphs.

Even more, however, the copyright angle intrigues me. Du Bois, a cofounder of the NAACP, writes: "Work, culture, liberty,--all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of human brotherhood..." Just how much does Hollywood grow culture when it buys out Congress and kills culture with copyright extensions?

Du Bois vs. Bono

I wonder what Du Bois would have written about the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the much-needed suit over orphaned works, or about the greed that has stymied efforts to spread around The Eyes on the Prize. I stand in awe of the Hollywood copyright zealots' respect for history (sarcasm alert). Du Bois also has plenty to say on tenant farmers. Many musicians of all races would be quick to associated those rip-offs with the more modern variety done by members of the RIAA. You can't separate the copyright wars from the struggles for economic and racial equality.

No, I would not agree with the Communist approach that Du Bois advocated later in his long life, nor would I feel comfortable with Black separatism. But his early diagnoses of the problems would seem most credible--and serve as a warning of the damage that oppressive, meddlesome copyright laws can create at the expense of both equality and wealth creation outside the elite. In fact, one could argue that the DMCAists and Bonoists are the new Communists, the kindred souls of the old Soviets who viewed copiers as evil.

Picketing Greedster Central

Perhaps the time has come for some old-fashioned multiracial picketing at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the RIAA and MPAA. Maybe instead of the standard pamphlets, we could hand out instructions on how to download free books from the Internet Archive--and tell how to make your own paper copies. That's what is at stake in the future when Jack Valenti or perhaps his successors press on for eternal copyright, presumably without any need for registration.

Low expectations for the press

The Washington Post and the rest would most likely ignore the picketing or hide the story on an inside page. But it would be a way to remind millionaire Hollywood liberals that advocating Bono is about as much in the public interest as flying around in a gas-guzzling private jetliner while spouting off platitudes about the environment.

More importantly, picketing would be wonderful fodder for the blog circuit; and perhaps a few of the smarter journalists, even at the Post, would begin to connect the dots. This would also be an interesting test of newspapers outside Washington to see which might care. Would the Greensboro New Record, praised for its "citizens journalism," understand? Having now talked to locals on the Greensboro scene, I'm not sure.

Update 2:02 p.m.: Revised to address the issue of Du Bois's ideology.

Related: Cos and Effect: Bill Cosby Sparked a Debate.Will His Own Troubles Snuff It Out?, a Washington Post article with a lengthy reference to the debate between Du Bois and Booker T. Washington over the extent to which Afro-Americans should compromise with whites.
posted by David Rothman at 8:30 AM | permanent link

So how long until PR flunkies start treating ordinary bloggers as journalists and make them play by the same rules, complete with the "off-the-record" routine? That's one of many questions that arose during a seminar at the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Here are more details from Steve Garfield's Video Blog.

Not explored in the same depth was the issue of what happens when now-powerless people start to blog. Andy Carvin of the Digital Divide Network used the example of unwed welfare mothers lobbying to protect benefits. I myself think that there are better examples out there even though welfare mothers count. How about the pesky question of working people, such as the members of the NAACP and the VFW, blogging in a massive way? That's what is about to happen in North Carolina and a bunch of other states, and I love it.

Mass blogging: Oh, the horrors!

I wonder how the blogging elite will react, not just the usual media heavies, when blogging truly catches on. Welfare mothers are no threat to the blogroll-level VIPs. But suppose established groups such as the NAACP and VFW can get their members online. That could be far more scary to the California-and-Massachusetts blogging elite than welfare mothers. Some members of the CAM Mafia such as Dave Winer just might find that traditional political bases start counting more than who has the latest and greatest technology or the best connections at Ivy League campuses.

The glory of working people going online--whether you're an NAACP member outraged at the Eyes on the Prize copyright outrage or a Dave Winer who at times is more caught up in techie fantasies than political realities--is that Hollywood may not be able to buy Washington as easily. It's one thing when the copyright thugs can easily thwart the tech-and-law-school elite through apparent buyouts and rentals of pols. But what happens when the constituency for unbought copyright law multiplies in size?

Bellybutton-gazing

Meanwhile, in covering the blogging movement, big news organizations may be a little too fixated on the Ivy League bloggers--and on other media types. ABC and the Harvard bloggers took videos of each other. It's part of the standard bellybutton-gazing. Outfits like CNBC, for example, love to do blogging segments where many and perhaps most of the "bloggers" are journalists who just happen to blog on the side. Oh, those newsies. Well, I've got a tip for CNBC, Nightline and the rest. The most important blogging story in the end won't come out of Harvard. Look more than 500 miles south to Greensboro, North Carolina, home of the earliest civil rights sit-ins.

I don't mean the experiment in "citizens journalism" that the local paper is conducting for Landmark Communications. No, the real blogging revolution from Greensboro will come out of the shell of an old textile factory known as Revolution Mills. It's where Jerry McClough of the NAACP and TheShu, Tara Sue and Ross Myers of the VFW are fixing to make blogging a truly mass phenomenon. Get set for the "blog-in"--mass activism effected through RM-style blogging networks--to follow in the tradition of the sit-in.

Related: The Blogs Must Be Crazy, by Peggy Noonan.
posted by David Rothman at 1:14 AM | permanent link

"Forbes magazine lists 587 billionaires on its latest ranking of the world's richest people, 64 more than a year earlier. Their combined net worth soared to $2.47 trillion in 2004, up from $1.82 trillion a year earlier." - Rich Keeping Super-Yacht Builders Busy, via Reuters.

The TeleRead take: Um, couldn't some of that extra wealth go toward library-oriented philanthropy in the Carnegie tradition? While brick-and-mortar libraries are in dire need of help, e-book technology would be one way to help the rich get even better value for their donations. If any yacht-buyers want specifics on how they can help, beyond sending money now to the endangered libraries in John Steinbeck's home town, I'll be pleased to oblige.
posted by David Rothman at 1:13 AM | permanent link