The eBook is 40 (1971-2011) Part 4

1996 > LIBRARIES LAUNCHED WEBSITES

[Summary]

The Helsinki City Library in Finland was the first library to launch a website, which went live in February 1994. Two years later, more and more libraries started their own websites as a virtual window for their patrons and beyond. Patrons could check opening hours, browse the online catalog, and surf a broad selection of websites on various topics. Libraries developed digital libraries alongside their standard collections, so that anyone could access their specialized, old, local and regional collections, including for images and sound. Librarians could finally fulfill two goals that used to be in contradiction: preservation (on shelves) and communication (on the internet). Debates were fierce about the a.s.sets of the print book versus the digital book, and vice versa.

In the mid-1990s, libraries started their own websites as a virtual window for their patrons and beyond, with an online catalog and a digital library.

In his book "Books in My Life", published by the Library of Congress in 1985, Robert Downs, a librarian, wrote: "My lifelong love affair with books and reading continues unaffected by automation, computers, and all other forms of the twentieth-century gadgetry."

Automation and computers were followed by the internet (1974) and the web (1990), and eased the work of librarians in some way.

The Helsinki City Library in Finland was the first library to launch a website, which went live in February 1994. Other libraries started their own websites as a virtual window for their patrons and beyond.

Patrons could check opening hours, browse the online catalog, and surf on a broad selection of websites on various topics.

Libraries also developed digital libraries alongside their standard collections, so that anyone could access their specialized, old, local and regional collections, including for images and sound. Librarians could finally fulfill two goals that used to be in contradiction: preservation (on shelves) and communication (on the internet). People could now leaf through digital facsimiles, and access the original books only if necessary.

# At the British Library

In "Information Systems Strategy", a doc.u.ment posted on the British Library's website in 1997, Brian Lang, chief executive of the library, stated: "We do not envisage an exclusively digital library. We are aware that some people feel that digital materials will predominate in libraries of the future. Others antic.i.p.ate that the impact will be slight. In the context of the British Library, printed books, ma.n.u.scripts, maps, music, sound recordings and all the other existing materials in the collection will always retain their central importance, and we are committed to continuing to provide, and to improve, access to these in our reading rooms. The importance of digital materials will, however, increase. We recognize that network infrastructure is at present most strongly developed in the higher education sector, but there are signs that similar facilities will also be available elsewhere, particularly in the industrial and commercial sector, and for public libraries. Our vision of network access encompa.s.ses all these."

An extensive Digital Library Program was expected to begin in 1999. As explained by Brian Lang: "The development of the Digital Library will enable the British Library to embrace the digital information age.

Digital technology will be used to preserve and extend the Library's unparalleled collection. Access to the collection will become boundless with users from all over the world, at any time, having simple, fast access to digitized materials using computer networks, particularly the internet."

# Print book vs. digital book

Debates were fierce about the a.s.sets of the print book versus the digital book, and vice versa.

Roberto Hernandez Montoya, an editor of Venezuela a.n.a.litica, an electronic magazine offering a small digital library, wrote in September 1998: "The printed text can't be replaced, at least not for the foreseeable future. The paper book is a tremendous 'machine'. We can't leaf through an electronic book in the same way as a paper book.

On the other hand, electronic use allows us to locate text chains more quickly. In a certain way we can more intensively read the electronic text, even with the inconvenience of reading on the screen. The electronic book is less expensive and can be more easily distributed worldwide (if we don't count the cost of the computer and the internet connection)."

In the February 1996 issue of the Swiss computer magazine "Informatique-Informations", Pierre Perroud, founder of the digital library Athena, explained that "electronic texts represent an encouragement to reading and a convivial partic.i.p.ation to culture dissemination", particularly for textual research and text study. These texts are "a good complement to the print book, which remains irreplaceable when for 'true' reading. (...) The book remains a mysteriously holy companion with profound symbolism for us: we grip it in our hands, we hold it against us, we look at it with admiration; its small size comforts us and its content impresses us; its fragility contains a density we are fascinated by; like man it fears water and fire, but it has the power to shelter man's thoughts from time."

1996 > TOWARDS A DIGITAL KNOWLEDGE

[Summary]

The information available in books stays "static", whereas the information available on the internet is regularly updated, thus the need to change our relationship to knowledge. In 1996, more and more computers connected to the internet were available in schools and at home. Teachers began exploring new ways of teaching. Going from print culture to digital culture was changing the way both teachers and students were seeing teaching and learning. Print culture provided "stable" information whereas digital culture provided "moving"

information, with information being regularly updated. During a conference organized by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) in September 1996, Dale Spender, a professor and researcher, gave a lecture on "Creativity and the Computer Education Industry", with insightful comments on forthcoming trends.

The information available in books stays "static", whereas the information available on the internet is regularly updated, thus the need to change our relationship to knowledge.

In 1996, more and more computers connected to the internet were available in schools and at home. Teachers began exploring new ways of teaching. Going from print culture to digital culture was changing the way both teachers and students were seeing teaching and learning. Print culture provided "stable" information whereas digital culture provided "moving" information.

During a conference organized by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) in September 1996, Dale Spender, a professor and researcher, gave a lecture on "Creativity and the Computer Education Industry", with insightful comments on forthcoming trends. Here are some excerpts:

"Throughout print culture, information has been contained in books -- and this has helped to shape our notion of information. For the information in books stays the same -- it endures. And this has encouraged us to think of information as stable -- as a body of knowledge which can be acquired, taught, pa.s.sed on, memorized, and tested of course. The very nature of print itself has fostered a sense of truth; truth too is something which stays the same, which endures.

And there is no doubt that this stability, this orderliness, has been a major contributor to the huge successes of the industrial age and the scientific revolution. (...)

But the digital revolution changes all this. Suddenly it is not the oldest information -- the longest lasting information that is the most reliable and useful. It is the very latest information that we now put the most faith in -- and which we will pay the most for. (...)

Education will be about partic.i.p.ating in the production of the latest information. This is why education will have to be ongoing throughout life and work. Every day there will be something new that we will all have to learn. To keep up. To be in the know. To do our jobs. To be members of the digital community. And far from teaching a body of knowledge that will last for life, the new generation of information professionals will be required to search out, add to, critique, 'play with', and daily update information, and to make available the constant changes that are occurring."

Robert Beard, a professor at Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, wrote in September 1998: "As a language teacher, the web represents a plethora of new resources produced by the target culture, new tools for delivering lessons (interactive Java and Shockwave exercises) and testing, which are available to students any time they have the time or interest -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is also an almost limitless publication outlet for my colleagues and I, not to mention my inst.i.tution. (...) Ultimately all course materials, including lecture notes, exercises, moot and credit testing, grading, and interactive exercises will be far more effective in conveying concepts that we have not even dreamed of yet."

Russon Wooldridge, a professor at the Department of French Studies, University of Toronto, Canada, wrote in February 2001: " My research, conducted once in an ivory tower, is now almost exclusively done through local or remote collaborations. (...) All my teaching makes the most of internet resources (web and email): the two common places for a course are the cla.s.sroom and the website of the course, where I put all course materials. I have published all my research data of the last 20 years on the web (re-edition of books, articles, texts of old dictionaries as interactive databases, treaties from the 16th century, etc.). I publish proceedings of symposiums, I publish a journal, I collaborate with French colleagues by publishing online in Toronto what they can't publish online at home. In May 2000, I organized an international symposium in Toronto about French studies enhanced by new technologies. (...) I realize that without the internet I wouldn't have as many activities, or at least they would be very different from the ones I have today. So I don't see the future without them."

The Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology (MIT) officially launched its OpenCourseWare (OCW) in September 2003 to put its course materials for free on the web, as a way to promote open dissemination of knowledge.

In September 2002, a pilot version was available online with 32 course materials. 500 course materials were available in March 2004, 1,400 course materials in May 2006, and all 1,800 course materials in November 2007, regularly updated then, with some of them translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese with the help of other organizations. MIT also launched the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW Consortium) in November 2005, as a common project for educational inst.i.tutions that were willing to offer free online course materials, with the course materials of 100 universities worldwide one year later.

1996 > THE @FOLIO PROJECT, A MOBILE DEVICE FOR TEXTS

[Summary]

The @folio project is a mobile device for texts designed as early as October 1996 by Pierre Schweitzer, an architect-designer living in Strasbourg, France. It is meant to download and read any text and/or ill.u.s.trations from the web or hard disk, in any format, with no proprietary format and no DRM. The technology of @folio was novel and simple. It is inspired from fax and tab file folders. The flash memory is "printed" like Gutenberg printed his books. The facsimile mode is readable as is for any content, from sheet music to mathematical or chemical formulas, with no conversion necessary, whether it is handwritten text, calligraphy, free hand drawing or non-alphabetical writing. An international patent was filed in April 2001. The French start-up iCodex was created in July 2002 to develop and promote the @folio project.

The @folio project is a mobile device for texts designed as early as October 1996 by Pierre Schweitzer, an architect-designer living in Strasbourg, France.

It is meant to download and read any text and/or ill.u.s.trations from the web or hard disk, in any format, with no proprietary format and no DRM.

The technology of @folio was novel and simple. It is inspired from fax and tab file folders. The flash memory is "printed" like Gutenberg printed his books. The facsimile mode is readable as is for any content, from sheet music to mathematical or chemical formulas, with no conversion necessary, whether it is handwritten text, calligraphy, free hand drawing or non-alphabetical writing. All this is difficult if not impossible on a computer or ebook reader (in the late 1990s and early 2000s).

The screen of the lightweight prototype takes 80% of the total surface and has low power consumption. It is surrounded by a translucent and flexible frame that folds to protect the screen when not in use. @folio could be sold for US $100 for the basic standard version, with various combinations of screen sizes and flash memory to fit different needs.

Intuitive navigation allows to "turn" pages as easily as in a print book, and allows to sort out and search doc.u.ments as easily as with a tab file folder, and choose one's own preferences for margins, paragraphs, font selection and character size. There are no b.u.t.tons, only a round trackball adorned with the world map in black and white.

The trackball can be replaced with a long and narrow tactile pad on either side of the frame.

The flash memory allows the downloading of thousands of hypertext pages, either previously linked before download or linked during the download. @folio provides an instant automatic reformatting of doc.u.ments, for them to fit the size of the screen. For "text" files, no software is necessary. For "image" files, Pierre conceived a reformatting software called [email protected] ( in French) which could be used on any other device. This software received much attention from the French National Library (BNF: Bibliotheque Nationale de France), especially for its old books (published before 1812) and ill.u.s.trated ma.n.u.scripts.

An international patent was filed in April 2001. The French startup iCodex was created in July 2002 to develop and promote the @folio project.

To this day, @folio has stayed a prototype, because of lack of funding and because of the language barrier, with only two articles in English in 2007 -- one in Project Gutenberg News and one in TeleRead about Pierre Schweitzer's dream -- for dozens of articles in French.

Even the best researchers can't do much with no support, no funding, and no interpreter (from French to English) to help them get through the language barrier.

1997 > MULTIMEDIA CONVERGENCE