E‐book devices and the marketplace: in search of customers
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Pages | 325-331 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830110411907 |
| Author | Roberta Burk |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
E-book devices and the
marketplace: in search
of customers
Roberta Burk
Introduction
``An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an
idea whose time has come'' (Hugo, 1852). Victor
Hugo was not thinking of e-books when he said
that almost 150 years ago, but if media coverage
and conferences within the publishing,
bookselling, and technology arenas are any
indication, there are manywho believe the time is
right for e-books. Not that this is the first time
around for electronic books. Michael Hart, the
founder of Project Gutenberg, has been
converting public-domain titles into plain ASCII
text files since 1971, and he and his corps of
volunteers have amassed more than 3,300 e-texts
since then[1], readable on just about any type of
computer, and free to anyone who is willing to
wade through Moby Dick unformatted on a PC.
Within the last several years, however, e-book
reader software and hand-held e-book devices
have arrived, providing an improved way to
read not only the Gutenberg titles, but also to
read thousands of commercially produced
copyrighted titles in digital format. As Crawford
(2000a) rightly points out, hand-held e-book
devices are only one part of a much larger
e-book picture. One part of that picture is the
PC-based e-book model that has focused on
institutional, corporate and academic markets
and is presently dominated by netLibrary, but
with some competition ahead from soon-to-be-
launched ebrary. Full-text searching of a
``database'' of e-books promises to open up the
contents of books in the same way the contents
of journals have been opened up through full-
text journal databases. Questia offers a similar
PC-based e-book product, not to libraries or
other institutional customers, but as a
subscription-based service to individuals,
primarily college undergraduate students.
Another part of the e-book picture is also
PC-based ± and that consists of what have come
to be known as e-book readers for desktop and
laptop computers, software that creates a
``book-like'' reading experience on a computer,
free of scrolling, and with such capabilities as a
built-in dictionary, highlighting, annotating,
bookmarking and hyperlinking. The two giants
currently competing in this arena are Microsoft
Reader, featuring ClearType technology, and
Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader with similar
CoolType technology. These e-book readers
The author
Roberta Burk is Information Delivery Services Librarian at
Northern Illinois University Libraries, DeKalb, Illinois, USA.
E-mail: rlburk@niu.edu
Keywords
Electronic publishing, Market economy, Rights issues,
Business development
Abstract
Since the introduction of the rocket e-book severalyears ago,
e-books have promised to revolutionize the way we read.
Corporate giants Microsoft and Adobe Systems have
developed sophisticated e-book reader software that
enhances the electronic reading experience. Hardware
manufacturers such as Gemstar, Franklin, and Cytale
continue to produce new reading devices. Yet despite the
numerous advantages offered by various e-bookreaders and
despite the widespread popularity of personal digital
assistants (PDAs) and pocket PCs capable of reading
electronic books, the e-book market has thus far failed to
materialize. Aside from institutional purchases of netLibrary
titles, sales figures for e-books have been disappointing, due
in large part to digital rights management barriers that have
adversely affected available content. Publishers, fearing
Napster-like piracy of digital content, seem reluctant to
develop a viable e-book business model whose success could
undermine the traditional, paper-based publishing industry.
Electronic access
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325
Library Hi Tech
Volume 19 .Number 4 .2001 .pp. 325±331
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0737-8831
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