E-Books in Todays World and Their Future - Essay Example

E-Books: History, Present and Future 2009 E-Books: History, Present and Future Printed books have a long history behind them, but it was not until Johannes Gutenberg's invented his printing press that books became widely spread. In the 19th century, creation of the industrial techniques of paper manufacturing negatively affected the quality and longevity of printed books. Although the recent preservation and conservation methods improved quality of paper, even modern date printed products have their shortcomings. Paper materials are vulnerable to physical damage, and depend upon space and time. By contrast, newly emerged digital methods of information processing provide more rapid publication and distribution options and have a number of technological advances of media that have already become more popular than the book. In fact, books have ceased to be the central method of transferring information prior to proliferation of the Internet and World Wide Web: "In many ways, we have, for better or worse, already moved beyond the book. Even on the crudest, most materialist standard involving financial returns, we no longer find the book at the center of our culture as the primary means of recording and disseminating information and entertainment. The sales of books and other printed matter, for centuries the centre of our technology of cultural memory, have now fallen to fourth position behind the sales of television, cinema, and video games" (Landlow, 1996, p. 23) Although printed books still continue to play a highly significant social role, electronic formats seem to hold more long-term potential for becoming the typical format for transferring knowledge and information. For example, many electronic journals have already become arguably more popular than their printed versions among the scholarly community (Mercer, 2000). There are many issues relating to the characteristics and use of e-Books, and it remains uncertain how popular they will become. Despite common perception that e-Books is the product of new millennium, they "[It] began in 1971 when Michael Hart was given an operator's account $100,000,000 of computer time in it by the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Labs at the University of Illinois" (Hart, 1992). In an attempt to devise what to do with his newly found 'wealth' Hart concluded that the real value of computers would not be in actual computing, but in storage, retrieval, and searching of libraries. Therefore, he created the first e-Book, the Declaration of Independence. Thus, Project Gutenberg and the e-Book got its start. Project Gutenberg still exist as one of the top libraries of free e-books anywhere and one of the most visited sites for e-Books (Hart, 1992). Popularization of the Internet to households in the middle 1990s made Hart's idea exceptionally topical. Online e-Book stores that offered access to newly published and popular books for a fee started appearing on the net at striking speed. With popularity of the internet and the emergence of other digital media formats such as mp3 for music and DVDs, many businesses traditionally involved in conventional printing matters, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, invested seriously in e-Books to make profits in future. Types of Electronic Books With the help of intermediate software applications, existing electronic files and documents can be converted into electronic texts that can be loaded onto e-Books for reading (Morgan, 1999). Two major types of electronic books currently exist, with a third format still developing. The first type, Web books, is an electronic text which can be viewed or accessed via the World Wide Web. Evidently, reader needs a computer with an Internet connection and the necessary reader software to read such books. For example, Project Gutenberg is a long-established online library containing huge amount of electronic texts. These Web books are of non-copyrighted materials in the public domain, and are presented in a basic format of plain text. Two commercial examples of Web books are the products offered by NetLibrary and the documents traded with the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) Merchant (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). The second type of is normally called Palm books. These are books that can be read by a handheld, battery-powered computer, which can either be a type of Palm Pilot or a dedicated reader device. By contrast with the Web books, e-Books which belong to this type are more portable and do not necessarily require an Internet connection. The Rocket e-Book, sold by NuvoMedia, is an example of a Palm book. Rocket e-Books are currently selling for $200. Other Palm books include the Softbook Press Softbook Reader, and the Everybook Dedicated Reader (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). The third type of electronic books is still developing though it has been invented more than 10 years ago. These books rely on the use of electronic ink to display content. Lucent Technologies (formerly Bell Laboratories) was the main designer and constructor of flexible plastic paper containing electronic ink. The ink can be magnetized to display customized content, and then re-formatted for the next cycle (Bindra, 1999). The project, officially known as eInk and also dubbed Paper 2.0, produced several prototypes of signs in shopping centers (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). Standard Specifications Given the variety of e-Book hardware available in the market now, it is essential that unified guidelines and standards for the formatting, distribution and publication of e-Books be designed and adopted. Such standards will clearly ensure compatibility between various existing systems, and facilitate the inevitable transition to future more advanced technologies. The Open e-Book Publication Structure Specification has been adopted precisely for this reason. The specification determined a uniform format for e-Books publications, built upon a mix of existing HTML and XML standards (Microsoft, 1999). The specification was developed in close cooperation with book publishers, software and hardware developers, and is supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (Springer, 2008) E-Book devices There are three types of devices that are normally used for reading e-Books: traditional desktop and laptop computers, PDAs, and devices specifically designed for e-Books. Each of these devices has certain advantages and shortcomings, but none of them presently meets the needs of consumers and all these devices are way more expense than most potential consumers would readily spend to read a book. Most e-Book devices, that is electronic specifically device for e-Books and generally look like a super-sized PDAs, are, to most consumer, overprice and impractical, yet alternative device tend to give lacking in usability (Eisenbraun, 2005). Desktop and laptop computers generally are the fastest, have the best resolution, and have the biggest screens, although the screens are often too wide for comfortable reading. However, computers and laptops limit where readers can read the e-books. Readers are either forced to sit in front of our desktop computer or provide a "lap" for a laptop. Fortunately, a computer is generally not an extra purchase, since most consumers already have a computer. PDAs, such as Palms or Pocket PC, provide a much more portable device than your computer and have a much better battery life. However, PDAs often come with too small screens comfortable screens and many of the lower models do not come in color (Eisenbraun, 2005). Neil Gershenfeld, in his book When Things Start to Think, compares a "old-fashion" paper book to an e-Book found on a laptop computer. He lists the specifications of a book as such: "boots instantly; a high-contrast, high resolution display; is viewable from any angle, in bright or dim light; permits fast random access to any page; provides instant visual and tactile feedback on the location; can be easily annotated; requires no batteries or maintenance; [and] is robustly packaged (Gershenfeld, 1999, p.13)". He jokes that, because the laptop hold none of those specifications, "[if] the book had been invented after the laptop it would be hailed as a great breakthrough" (Gershenfeld, 1999, p.14). The PDA is designed to be a multi-functional device, run using either the Palm operating system or the Pocket PC operating system. Although PDAs have varying amounts of memory, they have an almost instant start-up. In fact, they are often considered "lite" computers, being faster and smaller than laptops, yet retaining nearly the same amount of features. PDAs can be used as organizers with such functions as a calendar, address-book, memo lists, and a calculator. Many PDAs are also designed to download and display e-books in a few particular formats (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). In contrast, the primary purpose of dedicated ERDs is to display, download, and store electronic books, rather than mimic the functions of a computer. Some may also offer a few of the options available on PDAs; however they are only secondary to the e-book functions. Dedicated ERDs are usually slightly larger than PDAs. This allows for a more extensive viewing screen, and thus a larger reading surface. Many of the new dedicated ERDs provide the reader with the ability to rotate text by 90 degrees, allowing the display of longer lines. Both the PDA and dedicated ERD require a computer to download and upload e-book files, which is a major limitation of these devices. Although the e-book may very soon overcome the deficiencies of a physical nature, there are other obstacles it will have to overcome in order to claim dominance over the traditional book. Hand-held ERDs, for instance, need to be cheap and widely available. Nuvomedia's Rocket e-book is planned to be priced around $500, which is simply too expensive for most consumers. Desktop computers are not portable, and laptop computers are considerably more expensive than desktops. They also have a limited battery life and are still too heavy to carry around as easily as most regular books. Individual novels, downloaded into the e-book, will have to be less expensive than traditional books in order to gain a respectable following (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). Advantages and Disadvantages Although none of the above types of e-Books will be replacing or even matching the popularity of printed books any time soon, there are several unique advantages their structure offers over traditional printed publications. Many of these advantages are inherent in the format of the electronic devices; digital instruments can offer a level of features and flexibility that will never be possible through printed books (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). One of the most fundamental advantages to e-Books is their method of publication. An electronic text, which could be created by anyone, has the potential for instant worldwide distribution over the Internet. Electronic books also offer instant access to materials from virtually any location, without the dangers of damaging a printed copy; the virtual nature of e-Books allows easier access to electronic publications. A listing of available e-Books, for example, can be integrated into a library's online catalog (Ballard, 2000), thereby offering a complete substitute to why many people visit a library building. The economic advantages to e-Books are readily apparent. The overhead publication and distribution costs of electronic books is already considerably lower than using a printing press (Hayes, 2000). Some costs are passed on to the e-Book consumer, who must download or somehow obtain the document, but in most areas the corresponding expenses relating to printing materials are obsolete in the digital world. As described in the next section, however, these cost benefits have not yet been fully realized in consumer e-Book prices. Other advantages to e-Books lie in the increasing capabilities of the e-Book readers, many features of which are not possible with print on paper. A single electronic reader, for example, can hold more than one electronic text, and the potential exists for portable readers to contain entire libraries. The content of each electronic document can furthermore be expanded, customized, or updated as its user desires. Customized notes can also be written in the electronic equivalent of margins. The complete text of electronic books can be searched - a navigation tool unmatched by traditional back-of-the-book indexing systems. Further enhancements include an interactive dictionary, with instant access to the definitions of highlighted words within the text, and the capabilities of displaying multimedia that cannot fit on paper. Adjustable displays, including variable font sizes and levels of backlighting, are another advantage that e-Books offer (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). All of the above advantages are already a reality in existing e-Book products (DiNucci, 1999a), and have the potential to improve along with future technological advances. Along with these features, however, come some limits to what e-Books can accomplish in comparison to the familiar printed book. The disadvantages of e-Books can be traced to one of two causes: (a) the shortcomings of current e-Books technology and its derivatives, such as the current resulting costs; (b) incongruence that e-Books pose with current user expectations and conceptions of how books are handled (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). Prices for e-Books and e-Book readers remain prohibitive to many potential users. The Rocket e-Book represents a cost that nowhere applies to purchasers of printed books. The more limited selection of electronic texts, furthermore - most of which are heavily representative of non-copyrighted materials - are often at least as costly as their printed counterparts. As the research costs for e-Book hardware are obtained, the prices will continue to decline for improved products, as will the prices for e-Book publications as their demand increases (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). The physical appearance of e-Books does not yet match the quality of printed books. The display resolution of computer screens and electronic devices is considerably less than the print quality produced by a printing press. For many users, screen glare and eye strain are a serious concern, but all signs indicate that the display technology will continue to improve with time. Microsoft, for example, has announced plans to produce a new generation of Palm devices using their ClearType technology (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). One potential vulnerability of e-Books has to do with how they change the manner in which books have been read throughout history. Electronic books are categorically different than printed books in that they require an intermediate tool for viewing (and even eInk requires additional technology to format the pages). Without the hardware, Internet connection, or battery power required by an e-Book reader, electronic documents are useless. An extraordinary level of reliability must therefore be instilled within the electronic devices that handle the replacements for printed books. This seems to be an essential requirement for e-Books before they are adopted by most users (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). The usability of e-Books should also approach that of paper books. The virtual aspects of electronic information are more difficult for users to comprehend than the structure of a paperbound book. More and more computer users, however, are becoming comfortable interacting with digitally-based information. Handheld palm e-Books, moreover, are more similar to printed documents than is a computer monitor. Yet there remain certain limitations to using e-Books instead of paper books. A paper book can be opened and flipped through, while an electronic text is more difficult to navigate - especially since traditional means of use, such as gauging a book's length by its thickness, are not available. The ease of use of e-Books must remain a high priority as e-Books develop. Minimal technical skills should be needed by the novice user, even as the e-Book technology and its advanced features grow and improve (Lin, & Hubbard, 2000). None of these problems with e-Books are insurmountable. As the e-Book technology improves, so will its ease of use. A new generation of e-Book hardware, for example, offers reduced screen glare, improved fonts and layout, along with the flexibility of instant access to personalized and customizable electronic books (DiNucci, 1999b). As e-Book technology develops, systems will need to be established to preserve older e-Book formats. Migration concerns and other issues will be discussed in the next section. User Awareness Despite the relative newness of e-Books as a resource, most of the users surveyed were aware of their existence and had used them at least once, whether through their libraries or through another source. The study found that between 52 percent and 84 percent of respondents at each institution were aware of the availability of e-Books through their libraries. Moreover, between 58 percent and 80 percent of respondents at each institution had used e-Books at least once, whether through their library or other sources. For example, at University of Turku, 84 percent of users said they were aware that they had access to a large number of e-Books through their library, and 73 percent said they had used e-Books at least once (Springer, 2008). Springer's results on the prevalence of e-Book usage are congruent with a recent Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) research in the UK, which revealed that 60 percent of surveyed readers had used e-Books. The JISC study also showed that while 46 percent of users obtained the last e-Book they used through their library, nearly the same number (43 percent) obtained their last e-Book via the Internet. Clearly, even if users do not realize their library contains e-Book offerings, they are encountering e-Books in their online research through sources like Google Book Search. Libraries have the opportunity to position themselves as a central, convenient source of extensive e-Book content for users who would otherwise turn to the Internet for their e-Book searches (Springer, 2008). A 2007 study of usage metrics within Springer's own e-Books program confirms the promising trend in user adoption of e-Books. The study found that for institutions that were early adopters of e-Books, users accessed e-Books with 50 to 100 percent of the frequency with which they accessed online journals. And in the first year of Springer's e-Books program, e-Book usage accounted for roughly a fourth of total usage on the SpringerLink website with approximately 25 million chapter downloads. Given the relatively recent introduction of e-Books, these usage statistics demonstrate significant promise (Springer, 2008). In the 2008 user survey, respondents described the primary obstacle to e-Book usage as a lack of awareness of e-Book resources available through their libraries. Fortunately, libraries have the power to remove this obstacle by improving the ease of finding e-Books and educating library users about the availability of e-Books as part of library collections (Springer, 2008). The Future of e-Book Usage While readers recognize that adoption of e-Books will be on the upward trend, they can hardly imaging print sources disappearing within the nearest years. The dominant expectation is that that the transition to e-Books will occur most rapidly for research-related activities, rather than conventional studies, teaching, or leisure purposes. Another popular expectation is that reference works will most rapidly adopt e-Books, followed by research monographs and textbooks (Springer, 2008). Such results of survey further support the assumption that e-Books is the best option for scholars involved in specific research and also for information retrieval purposes. Users acknowledge the potential of e-Books to facilitate their research activities and consider that digitized reference works will facilitate quick location of the specific data they need. Most respondents predicted that in five years time they will prefer to read print versions of some books, and electronic versions of others. For example, at the University of Muenster, 53 percent of respondents said they would read both print and e-Books, 35 percent said they would read more print, and seven percent said they would read more e-Books. In the short term, e-Books will continue to be best suited to specific research and information retrieval needs (Springer, 2008). The CIBER study takes an even longer viewpoint, looking ahead to the state of virtual libraries in 2017. CIBER describes the "inexorable rise of the e-Book," predicting that print sales will fall sharply as electronic publishing matures and consumer demand grows. CIBER believes that by 2017, e-Books will be the default format for textbooks, scholarly books, and reference works (Springer, 2008). Conclusion The emergence of e-Books as a key element of the information experience requires libraries adopt different approaches to meeting the needs of their clients. While e-Books are not likely to replace print books in the coming years, users are quickly adopting them as complementary to printed sources. Convenience and ease of access associated with e-Books is the key reason for such quick adoption. Conventional libraries can expand the use of e-Book an even larger group of users via improving their awareness of e-Book availability and making sure that content of e-Book facilitates easy user-friendly usage (Springer, 2008). Apparently, e-Books will become a success only when they incorporate all of the characteristics of print sources simultaneously providing readers with advanced and enhanced technological capabilities. The technology underlying e-Books should remain transparent and constantly improving in terms of usability and other features. It is still a difficult task for many people to imaging a world where e-Books fully replace printed books. Therefore, it is likely that the conventional printed sources will remain, as the situation with electronic journals brightly illustrates, but surely the way society handles knowledge and data will be transformed substantially by e-Books. As soon as the technological features of e-Books reach certain level, the most essential factor determining their adoption by reader will definitely be their usability. Highly attractive features, coupled with the power and control offered by advanced technology will clearly engage increasing numbers of readers. References Ballard, T., 2000, 'Adding a new dimension: E-books', Information Today, 17(4), 48+. Bindra, A., 1999, 'Printed 'electronic paper' takes a step closer to reality', Electronic Design, 47(24). DiNucci, D., 1999a, 'Palm readers', Print, 53(5), 58+. DiNucci, D., 1999b, 'Electronic Books: The Future of Publishing'' Publish Media, available at: http://www.publish.com/features/9908/e-Books/e-Books.html Eisenbraun, M., 2005, 'Is There a Future in E-Books'' Iowa State University Public Homepage, Iowa State University Gershenfeld, N. A., 1999, When Things Start to Think, Coronet. Hart, M. S. 1992, "History and Philosophy of Project Gutenberg" Project Gutenberg. Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/history Hayes, R. M., 2000, The economics of digital libraries, Universidade de S'o Paulo. Available at: http://www.usp.br/sibi/economics.html. Landlow, G. P., 1996, "We are already beyond the book", in W. Chernaik, M. Deegan, & A. Gibson, (Eds.), Beyond the Book: Theory, Culture, and the Politics of Cyberspace, pp. 23-32, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lin, X., & Hubbard, J., 2000 "Books of the Future", Drexel University INFO 653: Digital Libraries Mercer, L. S., 2000, "Measuring the Use and Value of Electronic Journals and Books", Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. Available at: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/itsl/00-winter/article1.html Microsoft, 1999, "Paving the way for books of the future", Microsoft. Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/PressPass/features/1999/09-21e-Books.htm. Morgan, E. L., 1999, "Electronic books and related technologies", Computers in Libraries, 19(10), 36+. Springer, 2008, "E-Books - The End User Perspective", White Paper M7309 EB-06 B [available online at http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/e-Books+-+the+End+User+Experience'SGWID=0-0-45-608298-0] Read More