Electronic Books

[Lloyd Davidson]

Peter H. Lewis, "Taking on New Forms, Electronic Books Turn a Page" NY
Times Circuits section, Thursday, July 2, 1998, p.D1 col 1, p.D7 col 1

  A description of several near-future electronic book projects in the
works including "Rocketbook" from Nuvomedia ($500), "Softbook" from
Softbook Press ($300) and "EB Dedicated Reader" from Everybook ($1500).
The most impressive of these is the EB Dedicated Reader. It actually
resembles a book and can display two full-size, facing pages at once in
color with full graphics. The EB Reader uses PDF formatted text and seems
to be simply a specialized LCD screen portable computer, although the
display technology is not described in detail. 
  Rocketbook holds 4,000 b/w pages and lasts 20-40 hours on battery power,
Softbook 100,000 b/w and halftone pages and lasts 6 hours, and EB Dedicated
Reader 500,000 color pages and lasts 4 to 6 hours.
  These products are not likely to compete with the printed book, but they
are, after all, only the first generation of such devices.  None of them
are actually on the market as yet, but all are expected by the end of this
year or early next. Softbook is backed by Barnes and Noble and Bertelsmann
A.G.  It comes with a modem and will require a $20/month subscription
package for downloading text as needed. Rocketbook must be plugged into a
computer with Internet access and downloads text from any online bookstore
Web site that makes such material available.  Both claim to have reached
agreements with many major publishers. 
  MIT's electronic ink technology project is noted in passing, but
"[r]ealisitically, a digital book printed with electronic ink is years, if
not decades, away." 
  One problem, especially for older text that is converted into electronic,
is that "[e]stablishing electronic royalties for authors and illustrators
would be a legal morass."

Cheers,

Lloyd


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lloyd A. Davidson, Ph.D.
Life Sciences Librarian, Head, Access Services and Kaplan Humanities Fellow
Seeley G. Mudd Library for Science and Engineering
2233 N. Campus Drive
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL  60208

Ldavids at nwu.edu  (847)491-2906 (Voice)    (847)491-4655 (fax)