University of Szeged Klebelsberg Library
With the preceding lessons covering the basics of e-books and how to use them, this lesson discusses services associated with e-books.
Three major topics are explored.
International e-libraries and e-journals
What is digital rights management and how does it work?
Goodreads
An e-library (electronic or digital library) is defined as a library-like collection of digital or digitized documents, typically accessible online from anywhere. Fulfilling the functions of libraries, e-libraries not only collect electronic documents but also organize and store them.
Project Gutenberg is an effort by a community of volunteers to manage a collection of works on the subject of culture with the intention of digitally archiving and preserving those works. Founded by Michael S. Hart in 1971, it is the oldest digital library in the world. In terms of copyright, most of the items in its collection are in the public domain, with documents always containing the full text of the books that are digitized.
There is not much point in listing all the electronic libraries that exist in the world today, as practically every major culture and language community has such libraries of their own. However, the following sites contain information on and links to numerous well-known e-libraries: World Digital Library and Digital Library Directory
Some examples:
Not surprisingly, a significant proportion of academic and specialized books produced by the scientific and scholarly community are available in electronic collections (see lesson on Repositories). However, such collections are usually not free but only made available as part of various subscription plans. In some cases, these subscriptions provide major universities access to up to hundreds of thousands of volumes of academic and specialized books, all in an electronic format. In many cases, certain content can be downloaded in parts, but there are also services where the focus is not on downloading, but on reading online. The formats used in such collections vary, but PDF remains the most common format to this day, primarily because it simplifies referencing.
Clearly, online publication is now a common way of publishing journals, newspapers, and magazines. Some of these are published in proprietary publishing system, while others are made available in the form of PDF documents, protected by some kind of digital copyright protection.
Within the system of academic subscriptions, scientific and scholarly journals are usually distributed in massive subscription packages, with some of the major companies boasting portfolios of up to several hundred high-profile scientific and scholarly journals (e.g. SPRINGER).
An alternative solution has gained ground in the academic world in the shape of online journal publishing systems. These systems not only offer forums for publishing but also tools for assisting with editing and editorial work. The most well-known of these is the Open Journal System (OJS), which is used by countless universities. At the University of Szeged, the OJS service is operated and managed by the SZTE Klebelsberg Library. This service now provides access to nearly 30 academic journals, most of which are connected to the University.
The copyright protection of electronically published content, in particular e-books, has become technologically possible over the years. The key to such protection is usually some kind of software-based solution that guarantees that only the rightful owner of a piece of purchased content can actually use the content. These technologies have become known collectively as DRM (digital rights management) technologies. However, the term ‘digital rights management’ refers not only to the whole range of technological solutions that offer technical and legal protection for digital content in general but also to a specific software-based way of implementing such protection.
The general purpose of digital rights management is to make it possible to identify digital works, to manage the rights to such works, and even to allow e-books to be borrowed by readers. DRM solutions, therefore, ensure that the use of digital content is regulated; royalties are paid; use is monitored; and rights are enforced.
There are two types of DRM for e-books.
The relevant Wikipedia article provides a sufficient overview of DRM solutions.
When the e-book service of Amazon was launched in the United States, coupled with the introduction of the relevant technology, and the Kindle e-book format became universal, a new type of book forum was also born. Unprecedented in its scale, this forum evolved from all the reader reviews posted under the official information available on each book on Amazon’s website. At the same time, and not entirely independently of the Amazon phenomenon, book review and book criticism forums also emerged on the scene. Connected to book catalogs, but also linked to specific books, these forums eventually became extremely popular among readers, especially those who use e-books.
Although these book communities are not library-based, the content they create can be complementary to library services.
Look at one of the most popular online book communities, Goodreads.
As the most prominent online book community, Goodreads is an American platform based on social cataloging. This means that members of the community create the catalog of books collectively, by uploading books, writing reviews, creating lists, etc.
Goodreads was founded in 2006 by Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler, and in 2013 it was bought by Amazon.
Features:
Organized annually by Goodreads, the Goodreads Choice Awards have become highly influential over the years, with books nominated in several categories based on readers’ most popular choices among books released in a given year. The significance of these awards comes from the fact that voting is done by readers, not critics. These awards also come with the additional advantage that each win draws the attention of the reading public to the award-winning books and also results in a significant increase in the sales and the readership of such books.
Apparently, competing devices and services available to meet the competing needs of various users. In addition, there is also the survival of an analogue culture that has been around for thousands of years, while something new is emerging that is designed to imitate the old but also to replace it.
The realm of e-books is full of challenges, not in the least because the pace of change is incredibly fast, with the relevant technology improving ever so rapidly. However, there is a general sense that these changes are different for the various reading materials: the dynamics of the market works in distinct ways for specialist literature, journal articles, textbooks and reference books, while the world of fiction is a whole other matter altogether. Not to mention the fact that reading itself has undergone immense changes in our times. In this respect, the choice and the relationship between the browsing/scanning type of reading and close reading will strongly influence not only how electronic books are read by readers of the future but also how devices and book formats are designed.
This coexistence of all the factors mentioned above also gives rise to the profound and problematic duality between static and dynamic documents, which is something that affects devices, formats, and even services. It is also clear that here, as in all other areas of library activities, there is a strong interaction between going digital and going online, with the latter, in particular, completely transforming reading habits. That is one of the reasons why certain forms of technology are available for online documents but not for downloaded documents. However, there also seems to be no end to improvements in devices: while full-color e-ink, as a promise for the future, still hasn’t caught on, devices now do come with resolutions that are almost as fine as what readers get on paper (around 300 dpi).
What does the future hold? Will it bring lightweight devices powered by high-speed energy-saving processors and fitted with high-resolution color displays that can function both as tablets and e-book readers while connected to a network that functions just like public utilities? Or will there be devices with foldable screens, allowing them to be turned from small phones into large e-book readers? Whatever the future may have in store for readers, book markets and libraries are both sure to continue to expand their presence in the online world. The growth of digital documents in all areas of life will be widespread and increasingly common. Commercial book services and library services are set to evolve further in line with this shift. All of this means that it will probably be difficult for people to cope in the future without the skills necessary to use electronic books or without the ability to keep improving those skills.