[WEB4LIB] Re: NYT magazine piece on e-books

[Fazia Begum Rizvi]

>If e-books are indeed the wave of the future, why is that printers 
>and printing costs are such an issue in libraries?  The clients in 
>the public libraries where I work print out Pokemon characters, 
>superheroes, and answers to research queries.
>
>Until the time when computers are as small and inexpensive as calculators, and
>there's an easy connection between library computers and the 
>hand-held machines, people are still going to want hard copies.


One of these handheld devices was displayed at a technology 
conference I attended in March, and there was a panel discussion 
about the future of electronic publishing.

The consensus among the audience - myself included - is that we'd 
REALLY like to use such a device for downloading and keeping 
technical and reference books, certain how-to-books and the kinds of 
books related to our technical careers that seem to take up and awful 
lot of room on our shelves. *Especially* if the price for such books 
went down because of the new electronic publishing process.

However, while we *might* download the latest Stephen King novel on 
such a device, we most definitely still wanted print copies of our 
favorite books, novels, etc. Many of us have several shelves full of 
books at home, and while we'd love to get the two inch thick "Perl in 
14 days" off our shelves, it's only to make more room for a 
leatherbound Charles Dicken's Novel, or a few more paperback science 
fiction novels. There was a wish to own something physical, tangible, 
and a view of the book as a piece of art too that I don't think will 
die.

There was some interest in the idea that authors might create their 
own download sites, and write a book or series in pieces, selling 
bits as they went, allowing readers to purchase a print copy when it 
was complete if they chose. This was an exciting idea to many of the 
writers.

Wave of the future? Well yeah, sorta, if the idea is that it may 
change *some* things about publishing or the way we aquire or own 
books. But if the claims are  that it will replace print books - that 
idea didn't fly, even with a gadget oriented and technically adept 
audience at a new media conference. We still like our books, and I 
think they will last as personal treasures at *least*. And until 
access is ubiquitous, they will most certainly still be practical for 
a very long time.

-Faz

Fazia Begum Rizvi
University Webmaster
Southwest Texas State University
e-mail: fazia at swt.edu
phone: 512-245-9132
web: http://www.swt.edu/~fr06/