Beyond print: reading digitally
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830110412456 |
| Pages | 390-399 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Author | Gary J. Brown |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Beyond print: reading
digitally
Gary J. Brown
The primary constraints on technological change
are neither technical nor economic; they are
sociotechnical (EDSF, p. 11).
It takes several generations to get past the point of
depending on the old medium for a way to think
about the new and to get the point of exploiting the
new medium artfully in its own right (O'Donnell,
1998, p. 42).
Today's reading experience is not what it was
for Gutenberg, Queen Victoria or even John F.
Kennedy. As readers in the twenty-first century
we find ourselves reading an increasing amount
of electronic text ± e-mails, Web pages, cellular/
pager messages, online catalogs and databases,
e-journal articles and now e-books. Digital text
on a screen is a pervasive reality in the public
arena, in the office, in libraries and in the home.
In point of fact we embrace these developments,
tolerate them, or reject those that challenge our
comfort zones. Now with the commercial
launch of reader devices, we are entering yet
another stage in the presentation of electronic
text, which has the potential to alter our reading
habits, affect the organization of our intellectual
life, and change the venues of our reading
experiences.
The reading devices ± Palm Pilots, Pocket
PCs, eBookman, the Gemstar readers and their
predecessors the Rocket e-book and Softbook ±
along with the software readers for PCs (Adobe
e-book Reader, Microsoft Reader, even the
netLibrary proprietary reader) taken together
with aggregators such as netLibrary, Questia
and eBrary have provided a developing
environment for publishers to look again at
commercializing their print commodities in
electronic format. In many instances these are
the same publishers who had virtually
abandoned the vehicle of CD-ROM that a
decade ago presented yet another alternative for
the distribution of electronic text and books.
(Hawkins, 2000a, b)
What has changed today? The Web, of
course, is an all-engulfing reality, and through
the Web some of the publisher dilemmas of
distribution have been freed from the shackles
of print and paper. However, irresolution and
hesitation remain, particularly with the
standardization of text formats and the release
of intellectual property on the freeway of open
access. The standardization of digital rights
management remains a question not only for
The author
Gary J. Brown is Director of Library Services at Blackwell's
Book Services, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
E-mail: gary.brown@blackwell.com
Keywords
Electronic publishing, Reading, Software development
Abstract
The development of reader devices and improvement of
screen technology have made reading on screens less
cumbersome. Our acts of reading are not univocal, as we
read in many different ways with many different goals in
mind. Reader software can provide different levels of
navigation support for the manipulation of digital text,
presenting capabilities for analytic reading not available in
the print-on-paper reading experience and compensating for
our lack of orientation and feeling of omnipotent dominance
of text. The parameters of e-text reading and the issues of
access remain central to readers and researchers, whether
the electronic text is designed and packaged as an ``e-book''
for portable reading devices, or resides on a server for
distribution to library terminals to be downloaded to desktop
PCs, laptops or tablet PCs. The power and functionality of
reading software ± note-taking, highlighting and indexing
capabilities, robust open searching across databases ± are
ultimately linked to open access issues: interoperability, text
standards, and digital rights management. These remain key
questions for libraries, publishers and researchers.
Electronic access
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390
Library Hi Tech
Volume 19 .Number 4 .2001 .pp. 390±399
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0737-8831
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