David Rothman writes “The TeleRead plan for a well-stocked national digital library system, the public domain and related topics will be discussed on the eBookWorm netcast between 4 and 5 p.m. EST on January 15. Questions welcomed! How about the permanent checkout concept? Or the idea of avoiding the “rationing” of e-books, so that many patrons can check out the same titles at once? I’m confident that Tom Peters, the eBookWorm host, will be asking me his usual excellent questions, but people in Netcast Land can follow up with their own.
Yes, TeleRead would happen in the future. But what about ways public libraries can experiment now with free e-books–even amid budget crunches? In fact, Project Gutenberg-style books, either pointers to them or copies on your library’s own server, could be one way to stretch scarce resources.
David Rothman writes “The TeleRead plan for a well-stocked national digital library system, the public domain and related topics will be discussed on the eBookWorm netcast between 4 and 5 p.m. EST on January 15. Questions welcomed! How about the permanent checkout concept? Or the idea of avoiding the “rationing” of e-books, so that many patrons can check out the same titles at once? I’m confident that Tom Peters, the eBookWorm host, will be asking me his usual excellent questions, but people in Netcast Land can follow up with their own.
Yes, TeleRead would happen in the future. But what about ways public libraries can experiment now with free e-books–even amid budget crunches? In fact, Project Gutenberg-style books, either pointers to them or copies on your library’s own server, could be one way to stretch scarce resources.
In case you’re curious, the best-known public domain works tend to have been written before 1923. Why not a later year? You can thank Congress for that. Even with the damage from the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, however, the public domain is rich in popular-level treasures–from the Bobbsey Twins to the easy-to-read classics of Jules Verne. The vision-impaired will benefit especially. Public domain e-books, unlike many commercial ones, aren’t protected with DRM, which may interfere with screen readers–a real shame, considering all the advances in speech synthesis from AT&T and competitors. Check out TeleRead done Valley Girl style (.wav file).
How can you encourage the reading of public domain books, whether authored by the ancient Greeks or early 20th century writers? Let schools–public and private–do some or even most of the promotional work. Team up with school administrators and professional groups to spread the word among teachers of English, history and other subjects, via newsletters, mailing lists and Web sites. Also post on the Net locally developed study guides that you find of merit (and think likewise about tie-ins with relevant movies and TV programs). Maybe the guides’ authors can give talks at your library.
For the Net, perhaps librarians, educators and others can write appreciations of public domain authors and books, which TeleRead, maybe LISNews and other sites could pick up. Mail ’em in! The essays ideally would be insightful but casual–in plain language and in the vein of, “What this author means to me today, and why I’m a fan.” I’ve got dubs on George Gissing. Perhaps libraries could also invite patrons to submit their own efforts, with due recognition for the essays’ authors and the library systems. Lit experts could pick out the best essays.
I’m also keen on libraries’ use of posters of public domain books–with little tear-off sheets, so patrons needn’t bother to write down URLs. Needless to say, too, libraries could give away CDs and DVDs of the Project Gutenberg collection (there’s a downloading area for readers with high-speed connections, and other librarians can reach Gutenberg for actual disks). They could do the same with print-on-demand books; many classics from the Internet Archive servers are rather elaborately illustrated in old editions. No need for the state government of Illinois to be the source of all give-away books in the state! Just recently, a Utah official did some links to print-on-demand resources.
Of course, a related issue would be how to educate policymakers who control budgets. Circulation figures in the old sense should no longer count as much in an era when libraries ideally can giving away e-books–and print-on-demand ones, too, within budgetary limits. I’ll welcome thoughts from librarians, both on the show and for the TeleRead blog, on how to address those questions.
But is the technology ready for e-books? Well, not for everyone, but in the TeleRead blog and in LISNews, I’ve published more than a few thoughts on the use of handhelds for people who’d enjoy reading e-books on them. I do! Perhaps at least some local libraries can arrange for members of local computer groups to help with support tasks and give other assistance to library patrons. That would also help create a built-in constituency for e-books–both commercial and public domain. Meanwhile, one excellent source of info on handhelds for librarians is the Handheld Librarian blog written by Tom Peters, eBookWorm colleague Lori Bell and others.
Talk to you Thursday, Jan. 15! And if you try out any of the above suggestions, let me know the results.
Tip: Go to the eBookWorm site early so you can install the necessary audio software, which is easy to download and use. Also, check the site in the future for more programs in the eBookWorm series. The TeleRead blog, too, will carry eBookWorm notices.
Public domain sites: Among the most interesting sites are Project Gutenberg (the father of them all), Manybooks.net (popular formats available–with almost all PG titles included), Black Mask (a commercial site with a huge collection of free books in different formats, including my favorite proprietary one, Mobipocket), the Internet Public Library, the English Text Server, the University of Virginia e-text archive (including Microsoft and Palm e-book formats, not just ASCII and HTML), the Internet Archive (thousands of books blended with multimedia), and, last but far from least, the International Children’s Digital Library. Plus others too numerous to mention. In addition, you might want to read and distribute Project Gutenberg’s suggestions on reading e-books in the formats used on handhelds.”
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