E-Publishing –
What’s It All About?
John A. Mess
Digital Documents Information Series, 2
E-Publishing Topics:
Digital Publications
E-Journals
E-Books
E-Texts
New Digital Media & Content
E-Business
Standards
Copyright & DRM
Content Management Systems
Knowledge Management Systems
What Other Libraries are Doing
E-Journals
Allow for enhanced peer review
Readers can interact with author
Allows for linked media materials
Reduces time for publication
No space constraints
E-Books and E-Texts
E - Book E - Text
Multimedia Text (mostly) & Images
Non-Linear Linear, some Links
Proprietary Format Open Standards
Rights Management Mostly Public Domain
Non-Manipulable Designed for User
Manipulation
E-Books – All the Same ???
New Digital Media & Content
Videoconferences
graphs, files, video, audio, timing scripts
Interactive Media
games, educational readers
expert advisors
Three Dimensional Reconstructions
medical research (Visible Human Project)
education (Virtual Archeology, Molecules)
Multi-User Simulated Environments
E-Business
Streamline overhead and production
faster review and editing of manuscripts
faster compositing of text with illustrations
enhanced use of existing resources
printing on demand
Limited expenditures
digital storage is cheap
less physical storage and taxable inventories
Targeted Marketing
Stronger Rights Management
Standards
OEB (Open Electronic Book)
Microsoft E-Book
Adobe PDF
Glass book
Franklin Rocket Book Reader
ONIX (Online Networked Information eXchange)
Communication between publishers, jobbers, and
vendors
DRM (Digital Rights Management)
copyright control
printing and display control
Copyright &
DRM (Digital Rights Management)
Right to access replaces Right to Own
Viewing can be restricted
Printing can be restricted
Copy protections can insure single use
Users can be tracked for piracy
Fair Use ceases to exist since access
requires payment
Content Management Systems
Systems used to provide access and control
to documents and media through a
common interface.
Content DM
I-Magic
MUSE
IBM Content Server
Web Server
Knowledge Management Systems
Systems which manage not only the content
but enable the customized use, data
mining and user interaction for new
understandings and dynamic changes.
IntelliSystems
VideoConferencing
WebCT, TopHat, etc.
What are the ‘Down Sides’?
Responsibility for Archiving and Indexing
Providing a mechanism for digital materials to
enter the public domain
Proprietary tools are needed for use
Rights are dictated more as access than
ownership unlike physical media
Digital only materials exclude large segments of
the purchasing public
If you can market directly, to what extent do you
need a jobber or vendor or a library?
What Other Libraries are Doing
E-Journal Publishing
SPARC
Euclid
E-Book & E-Text Publishing
Electronic Text Centers
Content Management
Digitization projects
Knowledge Management
DeepSpace
Instructional Course Materials
University of Virginia
University of Minnesota
MIT
Professional Societies & Associations
American Council of Learned Societies
History E-Book Project
Research Libraries Group (RLG)
Cultural Materials Initiative
Library of Congress
Making of America Project
Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities
(IATH)
As well as many international projects
ORB : Online Reference Book for
Medieval Studies
Project at Oxford
Project Euclid
SPARC
What should Libraries Learn?
The concept of publishing is changing radically
Existing print practices with fair use are not in
the best interest of the publisher
New technologies allow publishers to remedy
these ‘flaws’
For knowledge and information to remain
dynamic and accessible, scholars and non-
profits are becoming publishers
Libraries can partner with their faculties and
their associations, or be left behind serving only
as aggregators