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News & ArtsMonday, November 23, 2009
Books Today in E-books: It's Like the Holocaust for Books!
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Nathan Bransford has a good blog post debunking certain popular e-book myths:
5. "You can't check e-books out from the library"According to the NY Times, about 5,400 libraries now offer e-books, and more are signing up every day. Most library programs work like with physical books - you "check out" an e-book onto your e-reader and "check it back in" when you're finished, and only one patron at a time can "check out" an e-book while you're reading it.
And then, almost as if in retaliation, the Evergreen Review just published an incendiary post about how the e-book is the end of everything:
Heinrich Heine, the early 19th century German Jewish poet, wrote: “"Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people." The advent of electronic media to first position in the modern chain of Being—a place once occupied by God—and later, after the Enlightenment, by humans—is no mere 9/11 upon our cultural assumptions. It is a catastrophe of holocaustal proportions. And its endgame is the disappearance of not just books but of all things human.
But in the other direction, these people will publish your Twitter in book form for $30 or less.
1
So, where they digitize books, they will ultimately . . . digitize people? OMG, The Matrix is real!
2
The only problem with making books electronic (not to mention photos) is that electronic books will no longer be with us after computers, the internet and digital media inevitably become outdated
5
I won't rest until the last hard-cover shitty teen vampire book is bundled in the entrails of the last big NY publishing house - to be remaindered.
6
I haven't had a chance to read Kaufman's entire essay, so I hope I'm not missing the tone when I say this: Does anyone find it ironic that this essay can be found in a completely-available-online issue of Evergreen?
7
#2 you don't think books will be ported to the new format? You think they will be lost forever or something?
10
@9, CDs and DVDs (for two examples) aren't magnetic.
But just in case, I'm transferring my Kindle archive to punch cards.
But just in case, I'm transferring my Kindle archive to punch cards.
12
The best e-Book reader is still your iPhone, in terms of practical usage.
You can waste a lot on the fancier ones, but they still mess up your graphics so it's mostly a waste of cash, unless you get one when you go for your MBA.
You can waste a lot on the fancier ones, but they still mess up your graphics so it's mostly a waste of cash, unless you get one when you go for your MBA.
13
what sense does it make for libraries to place a "one patron at a time" restriction on a digital copy of a book? for that matter, what would be the point of "returning" it when you're done - do they give you the only copy of the file?
14
@13, the license from the e-book vendor is the reason. It's stupid, and it sticks in my craw to license rather than purchase books for users. This means libraries don't have ongoing rights to the titles we pay for, and it places all sorts to stupid restrictions on how we can use and "lend" them. Some vendors, like eBrary, give libraries unlimited simultaneous user licenses, so patrons don't have to "check out" an e-book, while others, like the horribly clunky and ugly NetLibrary require each patron to not only authenticate to a library network AND create an individual user account in order to access e-books and audiobooks. The whole thing is a terrific racket.
15
@14 Well, I wouldn't say it's a racket as much as it's a way to protect authors and publishers from libraries becoming a de facto source for completely unlimited free books. The library model has always been one at a time which adheres to the ideal of spreading literacy while also making sure that publishers can keep the lights on. If libraries pay for one ebook of HARTY POTTER and 1000 people download it simultaneously and repeat that throughout the country you'd quickly have a bankrupt industry.
Also if it were a racket it's not a very good one since it's not like publishers are doing so great.
Also if it were a racket it's not a very good one since it's not like publishers are doing so great.
16
This provides a nice sampling of some of the extreme reactions to change, but for a more balanced view check out this guy http://blog.oregonlive.com/portlandarts/… Oh wait, isn't that me he's quoting? Why yes...and that's how I know that he is a fair and balanced reporter... In any case, there is a middle ground and perhaps we could dwell there for awhile.
17
You can't check e-books out from a library? News to me. I've been checking e-books out from King County Library for the past year. That way, I can read the book at home or on my Blackberry. I only wish they had a larger catalog of e-books.
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