Section IV: Electrifying the Book:
Evolutionary or Revolutinary?
How will the electronic book alter the relationships between people, words, and communications? Our Library Week special program "Electrifying the Book: Evolutionary or Revolutionary?" was, indeed, electrifying! President Christoph M. Kimmich welcomed guests and speakers, who included Clifford Lynch, executive director, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). Mr. Lynch addressed the broad implications of e-books for readers, authors, publishers and libraries.
|
|
Doreen Carvajal, business and technology writer for the New York Times, spoke about the rapidly changing e-publishing scene and the e-book business. A presentation and demonstration was made by Lynn Connaway, vice-president of research and library systems, netLibrary, the world's largest collection of full-text electronic reference, scholarly and professional books. Ken Brooks, vice-president for digital content, Barnes & Noble, spoke and demonstrated various electronic reading devices. |
|
This April 4 afternoon seminar was attended by students, faculty, staff, publishers, librarians, writers, and information specialists from all five boroughs, as well as upstate New York and Long Island locales-a total of more than 200 people. It was certainly a significant community service to the many people in New York City associated with books. A number of attendees remarked or wrote to us that the program gave them a much better understanding of the development and implications of the e-book. Later in 2000, many local and national library organizations modeled their own e-book programs on our seminar, asking organizer Miriam Deutch for assistance in planning their programs. |
|
