The E-book:
Today and Tomorrow
Hope N. Tillman, Babson College
Walt Howe, Delphi Forums
Monday, November 5, 2001
Topics to be covered
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e-book hardware
e-book software
converting
e-publishers and booksellers
digital textbooks
library community products
standards
rights management
copyright/security issues
future trends
Hardware - November 2001
Dedicated ebook devices
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RCA REB1100 and REB1200
Rocket and Softbook (no longer made)
Cybook
goReader
MyFriend
Tablet computers that can be used to read
ebooks
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AlphaBook
HPW-630ETR (ePlate)
Microsoft tablet pc (still concept)
Qbe Original & Vivo Sharp RW-A230
Voyager by Monec
Web Pad
WebPad
WebPAD
WebTablet
Xerox Gyricon
E-Ink
Example: RCA REB1200
Example: Microsoft Tablet PC
(concept)
E-Paper
Xerox Gyricon
E-Ink
Hardware - November 2001
Handheld/Pocket
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Aero 1550
IPAQ H3600
Cassiopeia E-115, EM-500
Datamyte 4000
eBookMan by Franklin
HP Jornada
Hiebook
Palm
SIMpad
TouchPC Voyager
Visor
Phone
 SAGEM WA 3050 a full dual-band GSM phone
Hardware – Nov. 2000
Softbook Reader from Softbook Press (Gemstar)
Rocket e-Book from NuvoMedia (Gemstar)
RCA REB1100 and REB1200 (Thomson
Multimedia)
Palm Pilot/ Windows CE devices, incl.
Handspring Visor
Pocket PC Devices: Hewlett-Packard's Jornada
545
EB Dedicated Reader
Glassbook Reader Device
Software Readers
For Palm OS
Adobe Acrobat
Aportis
Iambic
Isilo
MobiPocket
Palm Reader
Primer PDF
Qvadis Express
Software Readers
For Franklin OS- Franklin
OEB
Echyon Reader
Flip Browser
PC
Ebrary Info Tools
HieBook Reader
Microsoft Reader
MobiPocket
NetLibrary
TK3
Adobe
Windows CE
MobiPocket
Software Readers -specialized
Bookwormie – multilingual (different character
sets)
BrailleNote
Smart Reader – math/sci/engineering
SVG Viewer
TK3 Reader – multimedia
WAX - for KM projects
Display features
Typeface
Linked table of contents
Linked index
Search
Bookmarking
Annotations and Highlighter
Dictionary
Scrolling
Converting
The following are a sample of what is currently
available as converters and publishers:
Acrobat 5.0 and Capture
Activ E-Book Compiler
Memoware (iSolo) – see their conversion table
Microsoft Reader add-in for Microsoft Word
Overdrive
Rocket Writer
X-it (Quark to XML)
Example: Rocket Writer
Publishers
Publishers are looking at variety of choices to
make their products available electronically
while protecting their rights
See (Barnes & Noble), Powells, GemStar and
(NetLibrary) list of publishers
McGraw-Hill
Random House
Simon & Schuster
Time Warner
Vanity Publishers
Minimal barriers to entry into publishing ebooks
1st Books
BiblioBytes
Book Locker
Buy Books on the Web
FatBrain – Mighty Words (eMatter)
NightKitchen
Online Originals
Spirit Virtual Books
TK3 by Night Kitchen
Universal Publishers
Xlibris
Lightning Source
http://www.lightningsource.com
Lightning Source Inc., a subsidiary of
Ingram Industries Inc. is "The Digital
Content Connection"SM
Print-on-demand
Vanity publishing
The Morphing of Book Sellers
(Vanity Publishing Plus)
Alex Catalog of Etexts
http://www.infomotions.com/alex
BookonWeb - http://www.bookonweb.com/
(Contentville) – closed this month
Fictionwise – http://www.fictionwise.com
KnowBetter.com – http://www.knowbetter.com
The Library Place (informata.com)
eBooks on Demand
There are minimal barriers to entry into
publishing electronic books as opposed to
becoming a print publisher
Mightywords http://www.mightywords.com
St. Barthelemy Press
http://www.stbarthelemypress.com/
Audio eBooks
Audible
http://www.audible.com
Digital Textbooks (K-12 and
beyond)
 Digital textbooks, offer a learning environment for a
new generation of students by combining the
strength of great academic content with the exciting
capabilities of the personal computer and the
Internet! Digital textbooks encourage integration,
creative exploration, and active investigation
 Wizeup – http://www.wizeup.com
 Addison-Wesley – http://www.aw.com
 Metatext - http://www.metatext.com
 Thomson eLearning (http://www.archipelago.com/)
 Jones Knowledge.com http://www.jonesknowledge.com
 Blackboard, etc. http://www.blackboard.com
Sampling Textbook Publishing
Web sites for supplementary materials,
workbooks, exercises, case studies, exams,
teachers manuals, prefaces, and bibliographies
Easy updating
A few players
Addison Wesley – statistics
http://www.aw.com/stats/
http://www.awlonline.com/triola
Allyn & Bacon/Longman (Pearson)
http://vig.abacon.com/
Southwestern Publishing http://www.swcollege.com/
Thomson Learning http://www.thomsonlearning.com/
Companies Focusing on
Library Community
Going to the publisher world and
converting output to digital format those
things that began life as print
NetLibrary http://www.netlibrary.com
Questia http://www.questia.com
Ebrary http://www.ebrary.com
MeansBusiness
http://www.meansbusiness.com
Open eBook Forum
http://www.openebook.org/
OEBPS (open ebook publication structure) is a
nonproprietary, open format.
Plan is for companies developing tools to convert
proprietary formats into OEB
Subset of HTML tags
Leverage the current installed base of data in html, tools,
creation tools, etc.
Cascading style sheet subset
Use Dublin core
A goal is XML validity (desired, not required)
Common Coding Standards
.OEB/.HTML/.XML – open
.PDF – Adobe
.LIT – Microsoft
.PDB – Palm
.RB - Rocket/REB
.TXT – ASCII, text
.TK3 – Night Kitchen
Standards:
Digital Rights Management
XrML – open
http://www.xrml.org
InterTrust – http://www.intertrust.com
Reciprocal – http://www.reciprocal.com
Rights Market –
http://www.rightsmarket.com
Digital Rights Management Issues
Restructuring of ownership relationships
between readers and publishers
Migration issues
Will ownership be backwardly compatible? -migrate to next reader?
Change in expectation about a book’s
persistence
Impact on Publishers
Standards: Security/
Copyright Protection
EBX – of the Book Industry Study Group
(BISG) met with the Open eBook Forum
(12/2000) and plans to combine as a focal
point for standards activities related to
electronic publishing.
http://www.ebxwg.org
Intellectual Property Issues
Ebook devices as a intellectual property
control system Viewing platforms and IP
control systems
Ebook devices today as closed intellectual
property control systems
Content locked into digital books –can’t
share with other people
Issues with privacy
Genres which fled print early or
developed online persona
Encyclopedias, many dictionaries
Databases in print, i.e. Science Citation Index
Redesigned content portals: MeansBusiness
http://www.meansbusiness.com
Primary sources for American history: Making
of America
Scholarly web sites – Perseus site at Tufts,
Romantic Circles work
The Making of America
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/
The Tufts Perseus Project
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Devices versus Computers
Devices/appliances can be substitutable for
books
Some products can accommodate to ebook
devices while others need the full power of
desktop computing
Nonlinear work does not do well on today’s devices
Devices/appliances and computers are
converging
Portable Library rather than
Portable Book?
What will be impact of much larger,
cheaper storage space?
Storage will get cheaper – will have object
that holds entire library, not just 10-20 books
What happens when the content of
resources more valuable than device?
What about portability to the next
generation?
Where will the future take us?
Where will the potential of print on demand
lead?
Will anything ever be out of print?
What will electronic paper/ink be used for:
replace, create new or live along side?
What about standards?
What about wireless?
What about convergence?
Library Use of
E-Books
Chris Rippel - Online notes for e-book preconference at Kansas
Triconference 2000
 http://skyways.lib.ks.us/central/ebooks/libraries.html
See individual web sites:
Babson College http://www.babson.edu/library/
North Carolina State University
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/colmgmt/ebooks/
Charlotte and Mecklenberg County
http://www.plcmc.lib.nc.us/rocketebook/
Worthington Ohio http://www.worthingtonlibraries.org/noflash/ebooks/
Springfield-Greenfield County Library District
 http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/ebooks/ebooks.htm
References
 Hawkins, Donald T. Electronic Books. Online: part 1,
July/August 2000, and part 2, September/October 2000
 Lynch, Clifford. Electrifying the Book, Library Journal
Supplement Net Connect: part 1, October 15, 1999, and
part 2, January 2000
 Ohler, Jason. Taming the Technological Beast: The
Case of the E-Book. The Futurist, January-February
2001, pp. 16-21
 Randolph, Susan E. Are e-books in Your Future?
Information Outlook, February 2001, pp. 22-28.
 Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community:
Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993
Web Sites
http://www.knowbetter.com
They publish the weekly E-book
Informer that alerts to new titles
available for the most popular ebook
formats
http://www.planetebook.com
Contacts
Hope Tillman
Babson College
Horn Library
Babson Park MA 02457
Hope@hopetillman.com
http://www.hopetillman.com
Walt Howe
Delphi Forums
6 Saw Mill Brook Way
Woburn MA 01801
Walt@walthowe.com
http://www.walthowe.com
You will find this presentation at:
http://www.walthowe.com/ebooklinks.html