Electronic%20Books:%20A%20New%20Publishing%20Revolution

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Electronic BooksA New Publishing Revolution

• Donald T. Hawkins
• Director, Intranet Development
• And
• Editor-in-Chief,
• Information Science Technology Abstracts
• Information Today, Inc.
• 1-(215)-654-9129
• D.T.Hawkins_at_att.net

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A Rocky Road
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An Uphill Battle
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Lots of Slipping and Sliding
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Slow Progress
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Sometimes No Progress
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Quotes2002

• E-books Are Solving a Problem Consumers Dont
  Have. Chicago Tribune, August 9, 2001
• E-books may be the greatest work of fiction
  yet. CBSNews.com, May 14, 2002
• There is absolutely a future for e-books its
  just a question of how quickly that future
  comes. Toronto Globe and Mail, September 18,
  2002
• The e-book market is more of a distant promise
  than a present reality. Information World
  Review, May 2002

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What Happened?
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Too Much Focus on the Container
What Is An E-Book?

• The device?
• Standalone readers
• The content?
• E-text, digitized books
• Printed books stored in digital format
• Print on Demand?

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No Standards
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People Still Like To ReadFrom Paper

• The biggest hurdles that ebook producers must
  surmount are
• The quality of print portrayed on screens
• The reluctance of users to switch media and read
  books from a screen
• Electronic Books A Major Publishing
  Revolution
• Donald T. Hawkins
• ONLINE 24(4) 14-28 (July/August 2000)

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Questionable Value Added
The fact that technology is able to represent
documents on the screen is clearly not sufficient
justification for converting every piece of paper
into electronic format. Landoni, M., et al.,
The Electronic Library 18(6) 407-19 (2001)
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Some Current E-Book Market Events
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Demise of Dedicated Readers
Glassbook
Everybook
SoftBook
Franklin EBookMan
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www.stockton.lib.ca.us/ebooks.htm
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(Nov. 1, 2002, p. 27)
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Source Library Journal, July 15, 2002
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OEB Consumer Survey Results

• 67 would like to read an e-book.
• 62 would read an e-book from their library.
• 61 said that e-books should be priced the same
  as paperbacks.
• 70 said they would buy an e-book if it could be
  read on any computer.

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Major Significant Recent Events

• Elsevier alliance with netLibrary
• German and French language editions of e-books
  developed for Palm reader
• Cleveland Public Library to integrate e-books and
  local materials
• MS Office adds e-books to its eServices site
  (http//office.microsoft.com/services)

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Some Current E-Book Marketplace Players
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Project Gutenberg

• Began in 1971
• Free access to books for everyone
• Only public-domain material
• ASCII text
• Over 6,700 books
• Staffed by volunteers
• http//promo.net/pg

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netLibraryCurrent Status

• Now a division of OCLC following bankruptcy
• Focused on the library market
• Follows the one copy, one user model
• Considering permitting simultaneous users
• Over 42,000 books in collection
• Over 7,300 customers (3,000 academic)

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E-Books In Print???
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Appropriate Markets
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The Student Market for E-Books

• Many textbooks cost gt100 and weigh 2-3 kg.
• Textbooks are a large continuing market.
• 62 of students prefer electronic books over
  print. (Versaware study)

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Enhanced goReader
Designed for Students

• Pocket PC features
• Windows CE operating system
• IE browser
• Modem support
• OEB, HTML, and MS Office document capability
• Full color, high resolution 10.4 inch touch
  screen
• Weighs less than 3 pounds
• Holds up to 150,000 pages of text

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The Student MarketRecent New Cautions

• Difficult to utilize during brief periods of time
  (Its quicker to just open a book and highlight
  passages)
• Reading experience still inferior to printed
  books
• Some tasks are harder to do with e-books, and
  less information is retained.(http//publish.bsu.
  edu/cics/ebook_final_result.asp)
• Some students printed large portions of e-books.

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A New Business?
Source Ariadne, Issue 29, September, 2001
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Other Appropriate Niche MarketsFor E-Books

• Small publishers (mid-list)
• Travelers
• Technical books/training manuals
• Controlled environments
• Government
• Military
• Proprietary
• Consumers

X
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E-Books In Libraries
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Bringing the e-book into existence by attempting
to electrify the printed book is turning out to
be more complex than anyone had imagined By
putting a printed book into digital form we are
unleashing an unknown quantity into the
information ecology, and it is difficult to
predict whether the consequences will ultimately
be positive or negative. Dennis Dillon,
E-Books the University of Texas Experience,
Part 2. Library Hi-Tech 19(4) 350-62 (2001)
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Dedicated E-Book Reader Issues For Libraries

• Titles must be purchased for a specific device
  (Many libraries are using RCAs REBa descendent
  of the Rocket E-Book)
• Incompatibilities among reader brands
• Difficult and slow downloads
• Some users unwilling to assume responsibility for
  reader
• Must catalog both book and reader
• Technology problems

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CDL E-Book Study(D-Lib Magazine, July 2001,
http//www.dlib.org)

• All elements of a viable e-book market are not
  yet in place.
• Need added functionality over printed books (like
  online databases)
• E-books are not a panacea for storage/archive
  problems

The role of e-books in academic libraries is
still not clear, and there is considerable
development of standards, technologies, and
pricing models needed to make the market for
e-books viable and sustainable.
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Legal Issues
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E-Book Market Conclusions

• A shakeout has occurred.
• Many players have disappeared.
• Most dedicated readers are obsolete.
• Overly optimistic predictions have been replaced
  by more realistic ones.
• Customer concerns must be addressed.
• Some players are still active and are prospering.
• Some new players are entering the market.

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Major Conclusions

• E-books will survive and prosper in niche markets
  where they make sense.

• E-books will NOT replace printed books!

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Encouraging Signs

• OCLCs investment in netLibrary
• Major publisher investments
• Open eBook Forum industry report and promotion of
  e-books
• OEB customer survey results
• Widespread downloading of Microsoft and Adobe
  readers

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E-BOOK SALES JUMP CONSIDERABLY   According to new
data released by the Association of American
Publishers (AAP), sales of e-books have jumped
significantly, to more than 3 million for the
month of January 2003, up from some 200,000 a
year earlier. The numbers, however, only include
the reports of six major publishers Farrar
Straus Giroux, HarperCollins, Wiley, Random
House, Simon and Schuster, and St. Martin's.
While it's difficult to read too much into the
numbers for such a nascent sector, e-book
insiders were happy with the news-- especially
with the fact that the AAP was now paying
attention to e-book sales. "We've had double
digit growth in e-book sales for a long time, but
these numbers reflect that AAP is really just
beginning to get its act together about e-books"
said Jeff Gomez, e-book and print on-demand
manager for St. Martin's. Gomez pointed to lower
pricing, wider distribution, and the increased
bundling of Microsoft Reader and the Palm Reader
into computers and PDAs as potential reasons for
growth. "A year ago all I read about e-books were
these death-knell articles," he noted. "This
industry is becoming real. Source Library
Journal Academic News Wire, March 20, 2003
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Points to Ponder

• Isnt the Web a gigantic e-book?
• What about XML?
• Can DRM restrictions be eased?
• Will piracy losses be offset by increased
  publicity?
• Will giving away some free e-books enhance sales?
• Will tablet PCs solve the small screen problem?

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The report of my death was an exaggeration.