E-Book Currents
Libraries Testing E-books
In suburban towns near Chicago, 30 libraries have banded together to buy a collection of 1,600 e-books from netLibrary (www.netlibrary.com),contributing $1,600 each for the online collection. The libraries have set the checkout period for any of these e-books at three days. After that time, patrons who borrowed a book will find, when an attempt is made to open the book, that their time is up. The e-book is then available for borrowing by another patron. What remains to be seen is the public response to this program. Some of the libraries in the area are also setting up handheld e-book programs. For example,the Hinsdale library will make four handheld devices available to their patrons into which e-books can be loaded.
In Grand Terrace, California, the local Lions club donated $1,000 to the library to be used to purchase e-books and e-book reading devices. Librarian Laurie Shearer is considering purchasing three or four reading devices and 40-50 reference works, such as encyclopedias, in e-book format. The e-books and reading devices would be used on-site at the library.
At the Monroeville Public Library in Pennsylvania, Janet Balas has been researching and thinking about the role of e-books in her library. The question uppermost in her mind has been whether patrons will feel comfortable with e-books and can get real benefits from them. She has noticed some netLibrary inconveniences. For example, with netLibrary, patrons must establish an account with that company in order to check out e-books, and they must use a computer in the local library to set up their personal account. Even if they have already have a netLibrary subscription established at another library, it will not work for borrowing books from the local library. Also, patrons who choose to borrow a netLibrary e-book title are restricted to reading it at only one computer. If the e-book is borrowed on the patron's home desktop computer, it cannot be read from the patron's laptop computer.
Balas also noticed e-book reading device inconveniences. For example, at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh patrons can reserve and borrow an e-book reading device, but they cannot request specific book titles. The devices come pre-loaded with titles assigned by the library.
E-book Access Through Catalogs
Ebrary (www.ebrary.com), a Web site that plans to provide access to e-documents online, has become a member of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). Records of ebrary's copyright-protected e-books,periodicals, journals, and other documents are being added to WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog. Librarians and patrons will be able to access ebrary documents indexed in the OCLC database through an online site to be hosted by ebrary. Ebrary users will be able to read all its documents online without charge, and will pay only for printing or copying each individual document page.
netLibrary announced in June that arrangements are being made to have its e-books accessed via MARC records in library online public access catalogs(OPECs). Each e-book catalog listing will include a link to preview and checkout functions for the netLibrary titles.
1stBooks Library Growing Rapidly
More than 500,000 books are expected to be produced this year by 1stBooks Library (www.1stbooks.com). The site charges authors $359 to publish an e-book and that fee includes cover design and layout. There is an added charge of $199 to produce a print on demand (POD)edition of the book. POD is a technology used to inexpensively produce small quantities of bound paperback books. Authors get 100 percent of royalties up to$300 on all sales of their book, then 40 percent on added e-book sales and 30 percent on added POD sales. Authors retain all rights to their books as well as control of content. For added fees, 1stBooks provides various services, such as writing press releases and arranging book signings, to promote author's books. 1stBooks revenues grew from $118,000 in 1997 to $4.7 million in 2000. Revenues for 2001 are projected to be $10 million from 6,000 new titles. Today, the vast majority of its revenues come from POD editions. The best-selling title is"Kelly's Quest" by Buddy Ebsen which has several thousand copies in print. The company opened a New York office at 237 W. 35th St in June 2001.
iPublish Contracts Condemned
iPublish (www.ipublish.com), a Time Warner company, aims to attract authors who are overlooked by traditional publishing firms. However, writers who may be considering submission of their works have been warned by The Authors Guild that the contracts offered by iPublish present substantial legal risks and loss of literary rights. The Guild maintains that the terms of these contracts are among the worst that they have seen from any publisher. The contracts claim exclusive rights for Time Warner over any means for delivering digital content, even means that have not yet been invented; this definition includes rights to audio book editions. Royalties paid by Time Warner for e-books are effectively set at 25 percent, compared to 40 percent and more paid by other e-book publishers. No advances are paid to authors for e-books. Advances for print editions, which are only undertaken for the most promising books, are limited to $5,000, even if there is no agreement with the author on other contractual terms, and authors are barred from negotiating competing bids from other publishers. Time Warner also claims the right to acquire the author's next work, even if it never gets the print rights to the originally-submitted e-book, and that can be a serious problem for authors. For example, if the original e-book earns very little for the author,but that author's next work is a best-seller, Time Warner can get the rights to that best seller at a bargain price. Finally, if anyone claims the author's work invades privacy or is libellous, regardless of the merits of the claim, Time Warner can settle the claim without approval from the author and then charge the author for both legal fees and the settlement amount. Promotions for iPublish characterize the site as "Hope for Today's Writers".
Ebrary Signs University Presses
The Ebrary Web site (www.ebrary.com) will soon be selling access, one page at a time, to its online collection of e-documents. The material that will be available to users of the site has been enlarged by thousands of books through agreements signed with 12 university publishers, including Columbia University Press, Stanford University Press, and MIT Press. Ebrary users can browse and search its collection without charge, but the site will charge, probably 25 cents, for printing and copying each individual page. Book publishers believe that the site will provide more exposure for their books and will encourage added sales of their printed texts.
E-books in Education
Etextbook Rental Scheme
Rovia (www.rovia.com) has developed a technology for renting e-books. Working with publishers such as Thomson and Houghton Mifflin, Rovia plans to have 150 e-textbooks available for online rental by the fall of 2001. Introductory-level textbooks on Business,Communication, Computers, Political science, Education and Economics are currently being offered at the Rovia site. Complete books or individual chapters can be rented by the day, week or semester, with semester rental prices typically running about half the print-copy cost of the textbook. Books downloaded from the Web are read using RovReader software, which can run only on computers that use Microsoft operating systems. The software enforces rental provisions and allows professors and students to customize content by highlighting, bookmarking and annotating text. PDF book files can be converted by Rovia into online e-textbooks in 10-15 business days and publishers can sell access to their e-textbooks from their own sites. Rovia provides the publishers with statistics on which textbook sections are being accessed. The percentage of revenue shared with each publisher is negotiable.
E-books and Wireless for Law Schools
Wireless handheld devices are being tested in a program to help law students do research, study for exams, communicate, and manage their activities. At the Stanford University Law School, 50 students and faculty members paid $100 to received a Palm VIIx wireless handheld unit with portable keyboard, downloadable software, and six months' worth of wireless access. In a three-month training program the participants will learn to use the handheld computer to get wireless access to Westlaw legal databases provided by the West Group (www.westgroup.com) that allow them to find an attorney, a firm, a courthouse or legal professional by name or location. The databases also provide full-text viewing of cases, statutes, regulations and news periodicals. E-books can also be viewed, including The Federal Rules of Evidence, The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, The Federal Bankruptcy Rules and The Federal Bankruptcy Code. QuizApp software from PDA Verticals www.pdaverticals.com) provides reviews,scoring analysis and full-text search. The comprehensive software materials provided for use with the Palm device also include Flash Cards for Evidence from Emanuel Publishing, multiple-choice questions for the Multistate Bar Review Exam, Palm-compatible versions of US statutes related to intellectual property and up-to-date amendments of US patent, trademark and copyright statutes. Guide software for the Stanford Law School features faculty, services, facilities and resource information, all of which are locatable on dynamic maps and floor plans representing the Law School and surrounding campus. In addition, there is a Stanford University Pocket Directory database containing thousands of university and business listings. Time and Billing Software from Elite.com (www.elite.com) lets Palm users track and bill for time they spend working as volunteers and helping law firms during the year. On completion of the program, participants will be allowed to keep the products,but will pay for ongoing wireless access.
PDF Sowing Etextbook Seeds
The Adobe eBookU program provides faculty members with Adobe software tools to generate their own digital course materials by converting, encrypting, and distributing text files as e-books in Adobe PDF format. Participating schools include Maricopa Community College, MIT Sloan School of Management, Miami-Dade Community College, Mills College, Occidental College, Scottsdale Community College, Tufts University, University of Maryland, University of Utah Health Sciences, and the University of Wisconsin.
E-textbooks in Psychology and Sociology
Textbooks including titles such as Psychology by Zimbardo, Weber and Johnson, Educational Psychology by Slavin, Social Psychology by Baron and Byrne and Living Sociology by Renzetti and Curran are being published as e-textbooks by the Allyn & Bacon division of Pearson Education with WizeUp Digital Textbooks (www.wizeup.com). The e-textbooks contain all text and graphic material from the original print textbooks. Features added by WizeUp include a flexible search function that includes sound-alike words, highlighting, a notes tool, and text printing.
Ebook Self-Publishing for K-12
In a Web-based publishing program from iUniverse (www.iuniverse.com/educationworld),teachers can assign and oversee student writing projects, then collect the work into a single electronic file and submit it to iUniverse by US mail. There is a$110 submission fee plus added payment if more than 25 (black and white)graphics are used. At iUniverse, the work is assigned an ISBN, put through a design and layout process, and returned to the teacher for proofing. It is then available as an e-book, and as a six by nine inch perfect-bound paperback. The selling price is $10-14, depending on number of pages, and the school receives 40 per cent of the purchase price of each copy sold.
Ebook Hardware Developments
Electronic Paper in Color
EInk (www.eink.com) has electronic paper that displays text and graphics in full color. Previously, only black-and-white electronic paper had been developed. To create the full color display, EInk placed a color filter on top of a black-and-white display. This is the same method used in color liquid crystal displays (LCDs). The technique is expected to produce laptop and handheld computers and e-book display devices using electronic paper screen within the next two years. The resolution of the displays is expected to be about 80 dots per inch.
Tablet PCs Next Year
Microsoft, together with hardware partners Acer, Compaq, Fujitsu, Sony and Toshiba are working on TabletPC display devices that are expected to ship in 2002. The tablets will be larger than handheld devices, providing improved display for e-books and attractive features for business professionals and students. The emphasis of these devices will be on pen and voice input, although a wireless keyboard may be provided. In addition to e-book display, the device is expected to serve as a substitute for the paper notebook, particularly for alphabets like Kanji which can be input more quickly and accurately by pen than by keyboard.
Howard Falk (alkho@msn.com) is an independent consultant based in Bloomfield, New Jersey, USA.
