[286] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Print vs. Electronic
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Clifford Urr)
Tue May 19 10:02:24 1992
Date: Tue, 19 May 1992 08:58:07 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
From: Clifford Urr <cliffu@well.sf.ca.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Steve, you mentioned "cheap books on floppy" was an intent of the "Voyager"
project. It seems to me that *useful* electronic books may not be as cheap
as appearances suggest for the following reason: users may or may not use
the index of a paper-published book. At the least, they may flip through it
doggedly long enough until they find what they are looking for. But a user
cannot as easily skip through an electronic book and can do so a long time
without finding what they want. For this and other reasons, electronic book
users are going to be much more dependent on indexes and table of contents
to get around, and publishers will HAVE to devote more resources to quality
indexing and enhanced organization of books in order to make their books
accessable. (This will actually mean hypertext.) That's going to cost
money, the money they save from printing costs.
Cliff Urr
James Martin and Co. Library
Reston, VA
Bitnet: cliffu@well.uucp.bitnet
