[WEB4LIB] Ebooks in libraries

[Andrew K. Pace]

I was surprised to see no response to Gary's email about Ebooks2000.  I am also
surprised that so much of the talk has focused on eye-strain and the high cost
of readers.  My surprise is dwarfed, however, by my dismay at some of the things
I was hearing at this conference.  I have included my comments that I shared
with my library below.  I hope libraries begin to think harder and faster on
what to do about ebooks.

=================================
I just returned from Ebooks2000 conference in DC, where there were three main
thrusts: Standards, Piracy, and DIGITAL
RIGHTS MANAGEMENT.  I was very interested to find CNI and ARL absent from the
conference (or, if they were there, they
were quiet).  The horse is out of the barn on this one, and libraries will
undoubtedly be left to saddle that horse at a full gallop if we
do not act fast.

Several vendors are working on the OeB (Open Ebook) standard (LoC is the only
library "participant," understandable at
$5000/yr for voting rights), the EBX (Electronic Book Exchange) standard, and
the XrML (XML for DRM) standard.  Get
this one...the AAP (Association of American Publishers) is working on a standard
for book description called ONIX, you
know, stuff like title, author, subject code.  Slow going so far since they
realized that they need some sort of weird thing called
"authority control."  Sandra Paul, Exec Dir. of the Book Industry Study Group,
mentioned that the goal is a single standard that
all publishers and vendors can use.  When I asked her how ONIX would get along
with MARC, she mentioned that LoC was
advising BISG on porting the data and that the two standards could co-exist.
"Isn't that two standards?" I asked.  "Well, sort
of...not really...they complement each other," was the reply.   The LoC
representative who was supposed to participate
confirmed during this meeting that there had been no contact so far from BISG or
AAP.

Carol Risher spoke.  You might recognize her as the AAP bull-dog on copyright
protection (think Gnomon, Kinko's, MDS,
and Texaco).  She now works for a consulting firm that is going to help vendors
"navigate the difficult minefield of DRM."
When I asked her if her "navigation" strategy included a plan for strict
adherance to the Fair Use portion of the copyright law,
she replied (I am paraphrasing): "There is no such thing as adherance to Fair
Use.  One can only apply the four provisions of
Fair Use to whatever content one is facing."  Pretty scarey stuff considering
that the vendors and standards-makers (read
"vendors") are going to be incorporating description and DRM metadata into their
content.  That means that "use" will be
predetermined technologically.  READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN...now shudder.

What can we do?  What should we do?  Is ARL or CNI or ALA nimble enough to act.
This time next year, the
standards will be in place, the vendor pack will have narrowed.  Winner
predictions: Adobe, Microsoft, GemStar, Lightning
Source, BN.com, Amazon, Versaware; loser predictions: goReader, IBM, ClickShare,
DigitalOwl;  ones to watch:
netLibrary, ebrary, RightsMarket, Reiciprocal, ContentGuard, LoC, and ARL
Libraries.

What are we prepared to do?
-Andrew


"Masters, Gary E" wrote:

> I have been attending the 3rd Annual Electronic Book 2000 Conference and
> Show and until Thomas Peters (Center for Library Initiatives) spoke never
> heard the phrase "fair use."  I did  hear a great deal from Dick Brass
> (Microsoft) who thought civilization would fail if the money stopped going
> to the publishers.  He did acknowledge libraries after a question but
> thought that they were a historic way to cheat publishers.  (My
> translation.)  Peters was quite good in his presentation "Text and Text -
> Bearing Devices" and I encouraged him to publish it.
>
> Now, I like what ebooks will become and think that the eye strain problem
> will soon be gone and that the ebook has a great way to put many pages in a
> small package (why not elibrary instead of ebook?) , stay updated, mix
> media, and even present information to people who can not read.  I saw a
> device to produce Braille from an ebook at one tenth of the current cost for
> translators.  It was a prototype from NIST, but a bold expression of
> engineering.
>
> I have notes and handouts, so if there are questions that I can answer -
> please feel free to ask.  I will do what I can.
>
> However, most of my thinking is about payment.  The British library model
> keeps coming to mind.  It seems that if there is any way to keep track of
> royalty payments it will come out of the British experiment or perhaps ILL.
> All books are not alike and there is no point of dividing the pot evenly.
> Perhaps we can even get money flowing to those that contribute to research
> articles.  If research were paid according to the number that read it, one
> might expect an improvement in quality of writing.  But perhaps not.
>
> But here is the point of my message.  There are bright people who contribute
> here.  Perhaps we can devise some payment method that seems fair and is not
> out of line with what people think fair  AND is easy.  I am working on my
> thoughts, but they seem divided between micropayments and having some
> umbrella payment.  How?  I don't know.  It is a mystery.
>
> Also, not the point, but perhaps more important, lets keep in the face of
> ebook publishers with fair use and make sure that it stays fair.  We may not
> get all that we want, but they seem interested in cooperation.  NISO is
> working on it.  There was someone from ALA there.  After all, we could be
> their best customers.  They could be our best resources.
>
> That would be nice.
>
> Gary E. Masters
> Librarian (Systems)
> CDRH - FDA
> (301) 827-6893

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Andrew K. Pace
Assistant Head, Systems ~ NCSU Libraries
North Carolina State University ~ Raleigh, NC
andrew_pace at ncsu.edu ~ 919-515-3087
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