MISC> Do You Still Need A Library Card?
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Subject: MISC> Do You Still Need A Library Card?
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Subject: Do You Still Need A Library Card? (fwd)
Reposted with permission from Wired... -ac
Do You Still Need A Library Card?
by Kendra Mayfield
3:00 a.m. Sep. 18, 2000 PDT
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38671,00.html
It used to be that students would wander dusty library stacks,
sifting endlessly through volumes of ancient books in search
of pithy quotes and facts.
Today, students are abandoning the card catalog and turning
to the Web to do research. They can write an entire paper
without ever visiting the campus library or cracking open a
textbook.
But those turning to the Web may be left searching for
answers, since not everything ever written -- especially the
newer stuff -- will be available. And students who've grown up
thinking the Web is free may be surprised to learn that unlike
traditional libraries, electronic libraries are charging for their
services.
"The element that the Internet is missing most is valuable,
authoritative information," said Christopher Warnock, CEO of
ebrary.com. "For a lot of students, if information doesn't exist
on the Internet, it doesn't exist."
While many sites, such as Project Gutenberg, Alex Catalogue
of Electronic Texts, Bartleby.com and the Electronic Text Center
offer e-texts that can be downloaded for free, these sites are
limited to copyright-free works already in the public domain. As
Project Gutenberg's site states, "You won't find the latest
bestsellers or modern computer books here."
Unlike these sites for public-domain works, commercial online
library services such as netLibrary allow users to access secure,
searchable collections of copyrighted electronic texts.
Two new commercial electronic library services debuting this
school year, ebrary.com and Questia Media, could expand
access to material that has been previously unavailable on the
Web.
While netLibrary, like traditional libraries, allows only one
person to access a copy of a book at a time, both ebrary.com
and Questia will secure rights directly from publishers so that
an unlimited number of people may be able to access a given
book at a given time. Both services will create electronic
versions of print publications that have not yet been digitized.
By providing access to secure, copyrighted material, these
services may help alleviate the problem of unchecked sources.
"This is the first opportunity for students to really have a
credible service," said Troy Williams, founder and CEO of
Questia.
"I see this as an answer to the problem of filtering all the stuff
on the Web," said Carol Hughes, research librarian for
Questia. "Students are realizing that the information that they
grab on the Web about the Civil War could be written by a
12-year-old."
Hughes is part of Questia's team of experienced research
librarians hired to build an online collection that mirrors
leading academic libraries. The librarians must determine what
the most commonly referenced research books and journals
are across relevant subject areas.
"It's one of the first commercial services that has taken
seriously the goal of providing quality academic information
over the Web," Hughes said. "It's going to be the first
respectable collection with retrospective titles in it."
Users will be able to search Questia's online database for free,
but they will be charged a subscription fee to view results,
make copies, or print documents.
With ebrary.com, users can search and browse the entire text
of copyright-protected books, periodicals, archival materials,
and maps for free. Members pay only for pages that they
download, copy, or print for a fee that is roughly equivalent to
a photocopy charge (about 25 cents per page).
With this pay-per-use model, "the Internet becomes the
bookstore," Warnock said. "More importantly, the Internet
becomes the photocopier."
Ebrary.com members can download documents onto an e-book
reader, buy parts of books using a debit account, purchase
entire documents from vendor partners, or have out-of-print
documents printed and delivered. Files are sold in Adobe's
portable document format and can be displayed in PDF, HTML,
or other reader formats.
In addition to increasing access, these new electronic research
services offer tools to make in-depth research faster, easier,
and more efficient. Students can instantly pinpoint a given
word, quote, or passage.
Questia allows users to seamlessly jump to the precise pages
of cited books and journals through hyperlinked footnotes and
bibliographies that are automatically formatted each time a
user adds a quote to their research. In addition to searching,
highlighting, and annotating, they can also write research
papers online using the service.
"It's more like a word processor than a library," Williams said.
"It enables people to write papers better, faster, and easier."
For publishers, these online research services promise to
revitalize revenue streams from untapped sources, such as
out-of-print books. By increasing awareness of previously
untouched or unavailable online titles, these services hope to
drive sales of printed books.
Questia's service allows publishers to receive revenue each
time a student accesses a single page. Ebrary.com will provide
incremental revenue for publishers by selling portions of
documents. Publishers will receive anywhere from 60 to 80
percent for each transaction.
"Publishers really like the idea (of ebrary.com) because it
doesn't compete with their traditional revenue stream, and,
with our use of PDF, it fits within their production environment,"
Warnock said.
But not everyone thinks that these commercial library and
research services are a good idea. While public libraries are
open to all students, those who can't afford to pay for
commercial services may be left behind.
While Questia's subscription price still is undetermined, it will
be inexpensive relative to other fees that college students are
used to paying, such as cable television access, Williams said.
"We tried to price at a rate that virtually all students can
afford," Williams said. "There are students who won't be able
to afford this. But they're relatively few."
But will students pay for pages of textbooks that are available
for free in a library or elsewhere on the Web?
"That's the big question," said Dan O'Brien, a senior analyst
for Forrester Research. "People in general are unwilling to pay
for content on the Web, especially college students."
While students might be willing to pay for such a service as
part of their tuition, asking students to pay every time they
want to use something may be a tough sell, O'Brien said.
"Students have been reluctant to support that kind of model."
He said publishers may also be reluctant to sign up for these
services because of copyright concerns. "Publishers like the
idea of creating additional revenue for their backlist. But new
books they're very nervous about (putting online) because
they're afraid that somebody will copy and distribute them."
Both Questia and ebrary.com suggest that their models will
deter piracy by requiring users to pay for copyright-protected
content that they wish to use. Ebrary's service restricts
members from using content until they pay a fee. Questia will
limit viewing or printing to a single page at a time.
"We're essentially the antithesis of Napster," Warnock said.
"We don't allow a document to be downloaded until (the user)
pays for it."
Questia plans to offer 50,000 volumes when it launches in
January and up to 250,000 books by 2003. This number
exceeds the number of volumes in over 80 percent of all
academic libraries in the United States, Williams said.
"If you look at sheer numbers, we'll have a very good library,"
he said.
But even if the quantity of online books may rival traditional
library collections, matching the breadth of content already
amassed in larger institutions may be a difficult task.
"It's hard to say we'll have the same breadth as a Harvard or a
Yale," Williams said. "It took them 300 years to build their
library; we took three."
"There's no way that a 50,000-volume or even a
250,000-volume library can represent every dimension of
public history in the world," Hughes agreed. "We're looking at
breadth and balance in all dimensions."
Some academic librarians have questioned whether the
for-profit status of services such as Questia will compromise
traditional libraries.
"They're competing directly with academic libraries," said Rory
Litwin, library services director for the National Hispanic
University.
By going directly to students, Questia's service bypasses
traditional library services, he said. "They want students to
subscribe to their service. They are aware that libraries are
unhappy with this.
"I think that students will use the traditional library less
because of Questia," Litwin said. "In many cases students will
use Questia exclusively."
Both ebrary.com and Questia insist that these electronic
services enhance, rather than devalue traditional libraries.
Ebrary.com will offer participating libraries a 5 percent revenue
cut for each transaction. The service also will serve smaller,
more remote libraries by allowing them to access a more
extensive collection online, Warnock said.
Rather than replacing traditional libraries, Questia's service will
enhance access by providing an incentive for students to use
local collections on site, Hughes said.
"Librarians on every campus have a huge role in promoting
information literacy," Hughes said. "There's nothing an
automatic system can do to replace that."
"I don't think that Questia was meant to be the only service
that students need," Williams agreed. "We're facilitating the
librarian's main objective, which is helping students to do
research. That's a role that librarians will continue to play,
regardless of the success of Questia and other services."
Copyright 1994-2000 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
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Andy Carvin an...@benton.org
Senior Associate
Benton Foundation
http://edweb.gsn.org/andy
http://www.DigitalDivideNetwork.org
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Visit my new website, Anatolian Fortnight
http://edweb.gsn.org/anatolia
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