THE ELECTRONIC BOOK

Niels Ole Pors, Library Link Convenor

I have been fascinated by the concept of the electronic book (e-book) for a couple of years. I have to admit that I have not yet tried one of the reading devices such as e-Rocket Book. The reading devices - shaped like a real book - have been on the market for a couple of years. It looks as if their success has been moderate if you want to exaggerate. My fascination with them started when I was asked to write about the future of public libraries in the light of the Danish Government�s Information 2000 plan. As a matter of fact electronic books have been on the market for quite a while, without making a great impact but it was the same story with CD-ROMs in the beginning. It started slowly, increased, and the CD-ROM is now considered to be a transient technology.

Up to now it seems to be an American experiment and I have not yet come across the phenomenon in Europe. The latest article I have read about the revolution is from the Danish Newspaper Berlingske Tidende, 12. October 1999. It has a wide-ranging feature about the phenomenon that raises some interesting questions.

Briefly, an electronic book is a small paperback sized computer with a bright screen. Into it you can, in theory, download literature and use it to read when travelling, in bed, or wherever you normally do your reading. The technology should now be so good that you can even read in the dark.

In theory it should be less expensive to buy books on demand by downloading them into a reading device. Publishers, at the present time, are talking about possible price reductions of around 20 % compared to the paper bound volume. This very tiny reduction is, of course, connected with the work within the publishing houses. What happens is simply that some of the costs of production move to administrative costs. It is not cheap to organise and sell a download to single customers. The authors use, of course, the publishing houses in a way which amounts to much more than print. They use them as advertising agents, sparring partners, quality control and so on. And the question about copyright has not yet been solved.

I think it makes sense to distinguish between the different kind of literature or genres in this context. Quite a lot of information contained in management texts, reference tools and so on can already be downloaded to the different palm- or handsized computers.

I am more interested in the future possibilities in downloading fiction and its possible consequences for the public libraries, booksellers and publishing houses.

• Is it possible to envisage a citizen downloading the collected works of Joanna Trollope and reading them on an electronic book?
• Will children and young people be more inclined to read electronically than the middle-aged generation?
• How will public libraries react to the possibilities of electronic fiction?
• How will booksellers react?

Maybe the most interesting thing about the whole scene is that the old concept of what a book really is, disappears.

Anyway, the new technology offers the opportunity to create a supply of fiction that is much more demand-oriented and customer-oriented than we see at the moment.

Thoughts about these phenomena would be welcome.

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