Joshua Chalifour

I first read an e-book a few years ago when I decided to see how War and
Peace felt on my phone. Engrossing. And probably no less so than it is
on paper. Now I like both paper books and e-books but the spread of
e-books is about more than just enjoying them or not. The introduction
of e-books (among other digital content) changed the interactions and
responsibilities of publishers, authors, academics, librarians,
government policy-makers, and of course readers (or users). These
changes come with both social and technical issues and challenges,
particularly in the vein of access.

E-books have been available at least since Project Gutenberg began
digitizing them in the 1970s but devices that people widely accepted for
reading them have only become popular comparatively recently, for
example the Kindle e-reader became a best-selling product for Amazon in
2009. Of course, phones and tablets are also popular but device
popularity hasn't been the only challenge.

### Experience and the Environment

For many people, the qualitative feel of the e-book and the experience
of reading it remain an issue. A user attitudes
study^[\[1\]](#post-8304-endnote-2){#post-8304-endnote-ref-2}^, found
that people place importance on e-book "compatibility" with traditional
reading habits, meaning that the reader can do things such as easily
take notes, have a comfortable font size, etc. Some e-books are packaged
in proprietary e-reader platforms with designs that overcomplicate the
text^[\[2\]](#post-8304-endnote-3){#post-8304-endnote-ref-3}^. Even if
this deficiency is mostly a matter of user preference, different
interface formats and systems change the book experience from platform
to platform as well as from its analogue counterpart. The variance of
these systems is an issue that can require institutions like libraries
to offer more assistance to their users.

As a platform though, the e-book can include communication and
collaboration between readers and the
author^[\[3\]](#post-8304-endnote-4){#post-8304-endnote-ref-4}^. It can
also facilitate reader-to-reader interactions such as the interesting
idea at [ReadUps](http://www.readups.com), which turns reading into a
digital social experience. These types of interactivity change the
nature of reading from its traditional reflective, solitary position. I
like that traditional position and wouldn't want to lose it but I'm also
fascinated with these new activities that we can do with books.
Interactivity challenges authors and publishers to adapt to different
roles. And with respect to the book as a record, if the readers and
authors use the book as a platform for communication that alters the
scope of what we think of as the content of the book---a curious thing
pushing at boundaries of authorship.

The issue of regulations around legal deposit, although this is
changing, was poorly defined for electronic books, Web monographs, and
the sort. It presented some challenges to governments to define the
methodology for deposit that publishers should use and which types of
publishers should comply with the legal deposit requirements (trickier
due to cases where people publish directly to the Web.

The academic direct-to-Web publishing example is an example of
disintermediation. The process of disintermediation, in which digital
technologies made it possible for sellers (within industries that
formerly needed "middlemen") to connect to buyers without another
participant in between the sales process. The publishing industry must
contend with changing how it produces and manages digital objects in
addition to or instead of analogue ones. The promise of
disintermediation seemed at first to make it possible for more people to
immediately create books (and others to obtain them). However
maintaining Web sites and handling all the other processes and
requirements of digital media required the introduction of new types of
intermediaries^[\[4\]](#post-8304-endnote-5){#post-8304-endnote-ref-5}^**.**
Although e-books change many processes, they do not necessarily remove
intermediaries. Issues around rights, transactions, and the roles of
each party in the publishing ecosystem remain present.

### Problems with Access

Because people read e-books on a variety of devices, including laptop or
desktop computers, phones, and e-readers the e-book formats and software
applications must be able to adjust to the form-factor and operating
system of the device being used. The Australian Sunshine Coast Library
found that one of the primary reasons people (78% in its survey) like
e-books is for the portability, unfortunately proprietary formats or
systems can be problematic to e-book
uptake^[\[5\]](#post-8304-endnote-6){#post-8304-endnote-ref-6}^.

Digital restrictions management (DRM) is a significant problem for
access (see [Defective by Design](http://www.defectivebydesign.org)).
Not all e-books are encumbered by DRM (sometimes called digital rights
management) but many are and so the systems, agreements, and policies
for managing these rights are an issue both for institutions offering
e-books and people that want to read them. Libraries face several
critical
issues^[\[6\]](#post-8304-endnote-7){#post-8304-endnote-ref-7}^,
including precise identification of the resource and ensuring the
resource's authenticity. Much of this work corresponds to the technical
systems and the legal agreements that the library implements and it
requires documentation of data relationships to support extra DRM
tasks^[\[7\]](#post-8304-endnote-8){#post-8304-endnote-ref-8}^.

Sometimes licensing and DRM requirements (due to inadequately working
systems ) have caused e-book users to lose the material while
reading---obviously not a challenge with an analogue
book^[\[8\]](#post-8304-endnote-9){#post-8304-endnote-ref-9}^. Users
also need help understanding their rights when they access digital
resources that are encumbered with DRM. Depending on the rights holder's
requirements, users may be restricted from using the digital resource or
portions of it, may be restricted from printing it, copying it,
downloading it to their own device, or only able to access it for a
limited period of time.

DRM techniques (e.g digital certificates, watermarking, digital
signatures or timestamps, trust systems, "secured" hardware, or
encryption) sometimes rely on the user's system hardware and OS, and
since there are so many varieties of platforms, they often do not
support all systems, leaving some users unable to access content at all.
Likewise, the problem of disabled users' access is an issue for users
and libraries.

Using analogue content (paper books) leaves users in charge of
determining whether they have the rights to access it. DRM techniques on
the other hand assume that there are no rights unless the user can first
satisfy the requirements of the particular DRM
policy^[\[9\]](#post-8304-endnote-10){#post-8304-endnote-ref-10}^. This
changes the way information may be accessed from the context of public
domain---an otherwise unnecessary burden of proof.

From a technical standpoint, DRM also increases the role and necessary
activity of the e-book publisher (rights holder), which must permit each
use of the work. But for how long? Years from now the publisher may not
exist, the systems used to encumber the content with DRM may not
function. Is it even still an e-book if nobody can access its content?
Fortunately War and Peace already entered the public domain and has many
paper back up copies.

**References**

1.  [Jung-Yu, L., & Chih-Yen, C. (January 01, 2011). User attitudes
    toward dedicated e-book readers for reading: The effects of
    convenience, compatibility and media richness. Online Information
    Review, 35, 4, 558-580. Retrieved from
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14684521111161936
    [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-2)]{#post-8304-endnote-2}
2.  [Joint, N. (January 01, 2010). The electronic book: a
    transformational library technology?. Library Review, 59, 2, 83-91.
    Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00242531011023844 p. 86
    [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-3)]{#post-8304-endnote-3}
3.  [Martin, W. J., & Tian, X. (2010). Books, bytes, and business: The
    promise of digital publishing. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p.
    40 [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-4)]{#post-8304-endnote-4}
4.  [Martin, W. J., & Tian, X. (2010). Books, bytes, and business: The
    promise of digital publishing. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p.
    36 [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-5)]{#post-8304-endnote-5}
5.  [Duncan, R. (January 01, 2011). Ebooks and beyond: update on a
    survey of library users. Australasian Public Libraries and
    Information Services, 24, 4, 182-193. p. 48
    [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-6)]{#post-8304-endnote-6}
6.  [Agnew, G. (2008). Digital rights management: A librarian's guide to
    technology and practise. Oxford \[England: Chandos Publishing.
    Retrieved from p. 118
    [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-7)]{#post-8304-endnote-7}
7.  [Agnew, G. (2008). Digital rights management: A librarian's guide to
    technology and practise. Oxford \[England: Chandos Publishing.
    Retrieved from p. 124
    [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-8)]{#post-8304-endnote-8}
8.  [Joint, N. (January 01, 2010). The electronic book: a
    transformational library technology?. Library Review, 59, 2, 83-91.
    Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00242531011023844 p. 86
    [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-9)]{#post-8304-endnote-9}
9.  [May, C. (2007). Digital rights management: The problem of expanding
    ownership rights. Oxford: Chandos Pub. p. 61
    [†](#post-8304-endnote-ref-10)]{#post-8304-endnote-10}


I first read an e-book a few years ago when I decided to see how War and Peace felt on my phone. Engrossing. And probably no less so than it is on paper. Now I like both paper books and e-books but the spread of e-books is about more than just enjoying them or not.

Rogue Scholar Posts

E-books: New Experiences and Problems with Access