E-book

Definition

The Wikipedia (10:30, 7 July 2006 (MEST)) entry provides the following definitions: “An e-book (also: eBook, ebook) is an electronic (or digital) version of a book. The term is used ambiguously both to refer to either an individual work in a digital format, or a hardware device used to read books in digital format. Some users deprecate the second meaning in favor of the more precise "e-book device"” ... “The term e-text is often used synonymously with the term e-book, and is also used for the more limited case of data in ASCII text format excluding books in proprietary file formats.”

Typology

DSchneider believes that one should distinguish the following forms

• e-books that only can be read on specialized device.

• e-books that can be read on standard computers, typically in HTML formats or with adapted PDF pagination and line length.

• digital books that are meant to be printed. Typically these are PDF files with a page size that doesn't fit on our current low-resolution screens (even my 1200x1900 monitors)

History

Ardito (2000) describes how Andries Van Dam, a professor of technology at Brown University in the USA, coined the phrase "electronic book" while working on the first hypertext system during 1967 and 1968 on an IBM 360 mainframe, and that in 1968, Alan Kay conceptualised an e-book called Dynabook, a portable, interactive personal computer with a flat panel display and wireless communication. Though e-books are not new, their uptake has been slow, especially when compared to other e-formats such as e-journals and e-newspapers. One reason for this is because e-books have been available in many formats and these formats are often incompatible and non-interoperable.

(Anurada & Usha, 2006:48)

References

• Anuradha, K.T., H.S. Usha (2006), Use of e-books in an academic and research environment: A case study from the Indian Institute of Science, 40 (1) 48-62, [www.emeraldinsight.com/0033-0337.htm HTML/PDF ] (Access restricted)