An ambitious project to create an online catalogue of every book in every language ever published is under way. Public goodwill is not in doubt, but some libraries remain to be convinced.
"Bits of destruction" is a phrase Fred Wilson uses to describe the destructive part of "creative destruction" brought on by digitization. We hear a lot about the destruction wrought on the newspaper business. A more interesting and nuanced wave is now hitting the book publishing business. Actually, it is three waves: the digitization of back catalogs, e-books, and print on demand. However this plays out, a lot of people will be affected, but the way in which it will play out is not at all obvious. This is too big a subject for one post, so read this as an introduction to a multi-post investigation.
In this second part, we'll try to wipe the muck from our crystal ball and see how this could play out in the future, specifically for the major players of book publishing: readers, authors, printers, publishers, retailers, and e-book device vendors.
S. Thorin. (August 2003)Presented at e-Workshops on Scholarly Communication in the Digital Era, August 11-24, 2003. Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan..
C. Concordia, S. Gradmann, and S. Siebinga. (June 2009)Paper for the Meeting: 193. Information Technology
at the "World Library and Information Congress: 75th IFLA General Conference and Council 23-27 August 2009, Milan, Italy
http://www.ifla.org/annual-conference/ifla75/index.htm
Date submitted: 03/06/2009.