So this article in the New York Times, "Have e-books turned a page?" published Aug 27, 2004 by David Becker kind of dovetails nicely with my earlier blog on Medical Electronic Books.
(Note: if you are trying to access the NY Times article and it is more than a week past 8/27/2004, you will not be able to read the article free online from their site.)


It is extremely interesting. While it does not specifically mention electronic medical texts it does mention electronic books within libraries and with the academic and technical field. Specifically it mentions the O'Reilly books which are mainly targeted to computer technology and are available on Safari. We have access to Safari Tech books and we have noticed (from calls to our library) that set of electronic books is getting a good amount of use. This creates another question, "Is the use of electronic books determined by the type of user? Specifically, are technical users (computer programmers, web developers, etc.) more like to use an online book than another type of user?" My answer is a tentative yes. Even Sean Devine, managing director of Safari Books, says not all types/styles of electronic books are for everyone. For example Safari Books may not be work for all types of libraries or places, but technology or education material where, "The notion of having electronic access to a body of content that's searchable, where they can cut and paste examples of code right into the application they're working on--that's very compelling to our customers."


The NY Times article also compares the ebooks to that of digital media such as iTunes and other music download sites. Honestly, I am almost embarrassed to say that I never thought to compare the two, but when you talk about copyright and digital right management it makes sense to look at how the two medias have diverged.


According to publishing industry analyst, Jean Bedford, publishers are extremely concerned of security and that has fueled or cooled the drive into new areas and technologies. Because publishers are so concerned about security it is effecting the type of reading devices and formats that an ebook can be read or created in. This also hinders the reader or potential readers from using a standardized device, access a variety of wanted titles, etc. Borders said, "I don't see any combination of device and service that'll just come together and create a major shift. Steve Jobs did a great job of getting all the music labels together and saying, 'Digital distribution is going to happen--let's get ready.' I don't see that happening with book publishers. They're more traditional, they're very decentralized, and it just takes them longer to work out issues."
So users/readers have limited access to the good stuff, because the publisher's are nervous about making it available. Mike Violano, vice president and general manager of eReader, "Some publishers just don't trust letting their content be available in digital form."


The article continues to state that readers want their books to be available on multifunctional devices, not something they have to go out and buy specifically to get ebooks. So that means users want their books ready and read-able on PDAs, lap tops, and phones. (ok side note...have you ever tried to squint and read your phone's address book, who the hell wants to read a book on a phone!?) So this idea, gets back to my question as to whether medical texts are "there" yet for our patrons. Most of our medical texts are really only available on lap tops or desk tops. 1. We haven't invested into PDA ready books. (long story about library and hospital's willingness to go PDA institutionally) 2. At a glance there are very few medical books that are PDA available at a reasonable cost institutionally. The majority seem to be targeted to the individual PDA user not the institution buying for its users.


One of my questions as to whether ebooks are "there" is whether or not people are ready to give up their reading habits, i.e. curl up with a book, highlight a chapter, dog ear a page, etc. The NY Times article specifically ends with Gary Frost, Gary Frost, conservator of the libraries art the University of Iowa in Iowa City commenting on the human nature and reading. "Current book reading habits are the result of centuries of accumulation. Reading text on a screen and in search-equipped formats represents a profound behavioral shift, equivalent to the transition millennia ago from scrolls to multipage codexes, Frost said. Even digital enthusiasts will need time to adjust."

So there you have it....Are ebooks there yet? No. Are they getting there? I think so, but it won't be as fast as the music industry has with something iTunes. But that doesn't mean we should ignore it or discount it.