[WEB4LIB] RE: why ebooks and when?

[jw]

Well,

1. For existing texts, specialized uses like carrying all of Balzac's
Comedie Humaine to the beach with you, and being able to look up every
occurrence of his character Eugene Rastignac in any novel

2. E-books (the hardware) will engender true e-books (the content) which
will break the 500 year old chain of every work being read in a straight
line from the first to last page and will create new types of story
structure. I am not referring here to "experimental" stuff with alternate
endings, etc. but to new ways of telling traditional stories in a less
linear fashion using hypertext. Some of my work in this vein is
online at http://www.spectacle.org/empire.html

Jonathan Wallace
Publisher, The Ethical Spectacle
www.spectacle.org

 Jonathan Wallace

 On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Blake Carver wrote:

> At 12:03 PM 8/28/01 -0700, Masters, Gary E wrote:
> >E books remain the best way for a library to get books to its clients on
> >the web - if the copyright issue can be solved.
>
> Great point.
> BUT, what compelling reasons do we as consumers have to buy an eBook. So
> maybe "we" as librarians can see some reasons... space savings, time,
> money, probably more, but "we" as the average consumer needs a compelling
> reason to "uprgade" to eBooks. Just look at the marketing of eBooks:
> Lightweight, portable, easy to read, simple, flexible, loads of titles...
> big deal, so is a paperback, and it costs $285 less.
> They lose the control, longevity, tactile traits, ease of use, familiarity,
> and collectability that come with paper books, and don't gain much of
> anything except yet another gadget that gathers dust in the closet with the
> abroller, stairmaster and norditrac.
>
> I had a good reason to buy CD's over LP's, I just don't see one here.
>
> -Blake
>
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Blake Carver
> Web Librarian
> The Ohio State University Libraries
>
>