12

By David Rothman

Moderator: So how would you reply to the lively post below, from Kansas City librarian Kaite Stover, with Readers’ and Circulation Services at KCPL? It just popped up in the Book Group Buzz blog, part of the American Library Association‘s Booklist Online? Civility, please. I’ll share my own thoughts at the end. – D.R.

Booklist Group buzz: A Booklist BlogI’m not trying to be contentious. Far from it. I welcome all readers to my book groups. Especially those who haven’t finished the book or never even heard of it. But after flipping through this morning’s news, I’m wondering: If someone brings this to the book group with an e-book on it, is the Library responsible for any spilled coffee on the keyboard?

David Rothman over at TeleRead is musing over the use of the new HP Mini for e-book readers. The “gadgette” is compact, light-weight and easy to use according to a review David references from jkOnTheRun.

imageI thought it looked promising. I’m all about less poundage in my reading and faster access. What makes me grin at these techno-perts is how they focus on the electronics (which, I know, is their jobs, I shouldn’t expect more than that) and sort of gloss over how the newfangled things will work with everyday living. But that’s for us folks on the ground to work out.

So, I’m just wondering. How would an e-book on the HP Mini work if that techno-savvy soccer mom brought it to her book group? How does she turn to page 97 with everyone else to read the passage that holds the key to the character’s motivations? Does the Library’s food and beverage policy regarding computers apply to her? And how do you know she’s paying attention to what others are saying and not surfing her email? If she hates the book the group chose to read and discuss, does she throw her computer against the wall?

I jest, I know. This is how I make technology fit in my reading life. Can I eat with it? Can I slam it on the table if I loathe it? Can I take it in the bathtub with a glass of wine?

Of course, the e-book on the computer probably has the entire book and Scott Brick narrating to boot. When the soccer mom wants everyone to turn to her favorite passage, she keys up ol’ Scott to serenade the gang. Hmmm. There’s probably something to all these biblio-tronics, after all.

///////////////////////////////

David, again: Here’s my reply…

Nice to see ALA or at least one of its Booklist bloggers noticing us. Thanks, Kaite! To wander a few thousand miles from the topic, I, too, will miss Norman, who actually had some pretty sage things to say about books and literacy. I like your blog and MySpace page: useful context—suggesting you might be open minded. And now a few points to address your thoughts in the Booklist blog:

  • Yes, what else would I focus on but the grubby electronics in writing up the Mini? It’s not as if the Mini comes loaded with Dickens or Oates. I might add that the screen is big enough to help you get through Dickens-long paragraphs. Believe it or not, by the way, tech folks exist who do care about, er, books. I’m the author of half a dozen on tech-related topics and am grateful for the some nice words about my work from Booklist in the past. To reply to you more directly, I also have written plenty on the practical aspects of using e-books (yes, even the bathtub angle discussed in the just-given link and elsewhere). But to a great extent, these are generic issues that I can’t cover in every bleepin’ write-up of new gizmos. My readers aren’t your readers. If ALA pays me to do an e-book blog, then I’ll write it accordingly.
  • The soccer mom could easily reach The Page by asking you to give her a search term. But, yes, a standard numbering scheme or the equivalent would be great. Time for ALA to take more interest in the IPDF’s .epub standard, alternatives to Draconian DRM, and other things the group has more or less neglected? (Stay tuned for a soon-to-be-made post on libraries and social DRM, “permanent checkouts” and timed wireless access.) Heck, publishers are so stringy toward the IDPF than the ALA could just about buy the outfit out and work with responsible houses toward library-friendly e-book standards. I know techies who’d love to help ALA, which, alas, has its share of Luddites on e-book matters, including some “library automation” experts.
  • I was even working with Tom Peters, an academic librarian, now coauthor of an ALA-related tech blog, to start LibraryCity to address content and adoption issues associated with e-books. Time for ALA to encourage its members and their institutions to show more interest in LibraryCity than it did earlier—so Amazon won’t end up lording it over the library world? A little cash for Tom and the rest of us, including Alev Akman, a trained librarian who bridges the gap between e- and p-libraries, would have gone a long way. Rochelle Hartman, a former ALA council member, was also involved and cheering us on. We were and are grumpy about e-book technology as it exists now, and LibraryCity was meant to address the very real negatives of e-books at the average-Jane level. Imagine all the ladies in a book club enjoying the same bestseller in E—rather than waiting forever to borrow a paper copy? That’s one of the things that particularly excited Rochelle. With LibraryCity’s mass-purchasing approach, librarians would have a helluva lot more influence than Jeff Bezos would like them to enjoy. Talk about the practical! Let’s start with that minor little issue of cash. For now, LibraryCity is still alive but on the back burner, but a little interest from the right people in ALA could quickly change things for the better. Care to work toward a LibraryCity Consortium to give libraries more purchasing clout?
  • Food and beverage, in particular? And that fun headline: If you bring this to book club, you can’t have any coffee? I don’t know about the Mini, but if nothing else, how about someday using a $200 OLPC XO-1 laptop in tablet mode with appropriate software, for those who’d like that particular machine? It even has a rubberized keyboard to make it kidproof, not just book club-proof. The XO-1 may well be on sale again in the States in the near future, and if not, maybe something could happen though LibraryCity—a way to use many libraries’ combined buying power to help drive down the costs of the XO and other hardware alternatives, including Kindle-style tablets that could be tremendously useful to older patrons with vision problems and trouble holding up large-print books. See E-books as the new large print: An eye doctor speaks out, as well as librarian Isabelle Fetherston’s earlier TeleRead post on the topic.
  • E-mail distractions and novels tossed against the wall? Aim for a better book club program or a better selection to hold members’ attention. Of course, in person at The Library, are club participants really going to get caught up in e-mail? Maybe librarians could use overhead surveillance cameras to police them, or buy a few “throwaway” copies for disappointed patrons to hurl instead of their HP minis. 
  • Scott Brick narrating? Actually people at a new HarperCollins imprint are talking about releasing hardbacks that might also come with e-book and audio files, including some he recorded. Nice solution to the page-number hassles, no? Just take the p-book to the library club meeting.
  • More importantly, if well blended in with libraries and schools, with ample preparation for librarians and teachers, not to mention well-coordinated collection development, e-books could help narrow the digital and educational divides. Is it possible that librarians need to worry a little less about food and drink at book club meetings and more about the grand issues—before Amazon cleans out the library world’s clock? Ideally LibraryCity could lead to a full-fledged TeleRead approach.
  • Not to pick on librarians alone. Until recently I had an e-book blog at Publishers Weekly and was warning the cosmos about Amazon’s power grabs, long before the current fuss over print on its attempts to monopolize print on demand books, but PW didn’t just “suspend” the blog—it mysteriously zapped my archives from the open Net, along with those of the deputy editor who hired me, plus the former PW publisher, a New York Times alum. I wonder how Library Journal, PW’s sister publication, would or should have reacted. Does Booklist have any particular feelings about that? Do you see now why I want librarians to play a major role in e-books—to assure continuity, especially important in the forthcoming era of interbook linking—rather than leave it just to the commercial side? We need all kinds of business models! Hey, it’s fun to take pokes at E, which so often deserves it, but maybe ALA and its Booklist bloggers should start caring about the serious side, too, so libraries aren’t left behind.
  • Hey, how can I get mad at someone from Kansas City? My mama was from there (the Missouri part). Tom Peters, by the way, the ALA tech blogger mentioned above, lives not that far from KC in Blue Springs, Missouri.

Meanwhile, speaking of the glories of E, I’ll have more to say tonight or tomorrow. I’ve just heard from a teacher at a budget-strapped school in Virginia who can’t stop talking about the benefits of e-books for kids in public housing projects. No theory here. Her students are actually using them and much prefer them to p-books. Hey, words are words. I just hope the library world can look beyond the spilled-coffee issue and truly serve e-book-lovers—especially those housing project kids—along with the P variety.

Just how many e-books have you read, Kaite? On what machines? What tortured you? Just what did you like and dislike? Fodder for a future Booklist post? Go ahead and fire away at the failngs of E. In many cases, I’ll agree. Just keep in mind that solutions do or can exist if librarians care.

Happy reading–P and E,
David Rothman

(With yet another reminder that he’s reachable the old-fashioned way at 703-370-6540)

 
12