august 31, 2009 • 7:54 pm
The last week has brought up a new discussion on the future of e-books. It started with a post on Buns, blankets and bears; Are ebooks the new CD-ROM?, that I discovered on Twitter. I ReTweeted the post and it was posted on FriendFeed where Walt Crawford commented. This led to a short discussion which again caused me to wonder if the augmented e-books (a-books) would go the same way as the now unreadable CD-ROMs I have cluttering up a drawer in my desk. But there are some factors that might give a-books a better chance than the old CD-ROMs. First and foremost, people are more open to digitally enhanced experiences today than 10 years ago. Secondly, there is a culture for creation that was not there when CD-ROMs where the bee’s knees, of course you had to have a million dollar studio and computer stuff to make a CD-ROM with text, audio and video, but today you can mix the whole thing together on a 200 dollar PC. So these factors combined might bring on a grassroots creative burst, and when you get the first viral success a-book you get publishers to sit up and take notice, unlike the CD-ROM “revolution” which was mostly top-down driven the a-book revolution might be bottom-up driven. I can’t wait to see:-)
Filed under: E-books, Library 2.0
The german library e-lending system DiViBib is a controversial system for allowing libraries to lend electronic content, films, e-books and music, with a number of limitations. The system allows only the number of copies that the library has purchased to be borrowed, and the content can only be re-issued when the lending time is up. A pretty traditional “physical object” kind of system. The system also uses DRM to prevent copying and the use on several different units.
There is a major discussion among German librarians on this. I have blogged (in norwegian) favorably on DiViBib because I believe that this is a means to get norwegian publishers to start publishing e-books. So far, none of the larger norwegian publishers have published e-books since the great e-book bust of 2001. Today there is almost no really interesting or new material
published as e-books in norwegian. This is a problem for norwegian libraries, and DiViBib may be the solution to getting publishers to start publishing e-books, and thus get e-books to the public.
The limitations of DRM and outdated lending model are problematic, but also useful for making e-book publishing and lending “safe and familiar” to publishers and librarians that are sceptical of e-books and digital libraries in general. The introduction of DiViBib in norwegian libraries will give norwegian publishers a “safe” place to try e-book publishing. The Norwegian library bureau will act as an “responsible” agency and the main interface between publishers and norwegian libraries, and the introduction of DiViBib will also introduce e-books and digital material to a majority of norwegian librarians who are not familiar, or comfortable, with these new procedures and new forms of interaction between users and materials.
I do not believe that the restrictions on lending, and the DRM, will be major problems for this introduction. The majority of library uses, will probably not mind, ( just look at the sales figures for DRMed music) and over time the idea of DRM-free dissemination of library material will probably win out when publishers and librarians see that the public is not a “bunch of thieves” but ordinary people that acutally understand and approve of the need of authors and creators to be paid for their work.
We are in a time of change and new models for how library material and users are connected will surface as we gain experience and a deeper understanding of the processes involved.
Filed under: DRM, DiViBib, E-books, Library 2.0
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