Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!well!sac
From: sac@well.UUCP (Steve Cisler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Re: Hundreds of books on an optical disk (Medium!)
Message-ID: <7639@well.UUCP>
Date: 12 Nov 88 15:11:49 GMT
References: <968@accelerator> <-290109999@hpcupt1.HP.COM>
Reply-To: sac@well.UUCP (Steve Cisler)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 30


I'm impressed with the longevity of the discussion about optical
publishing. As a librarian, I tend to think that the trails blazed by
NeXT (and other companies) to move information from one medium
to another will have more effect on society than the speed or choice
of CPU or DSP. Of course, the total package will make users more or
less apt to use these electronic libraries. As an example, William
Arms of Carnegie-Mellon U. spoke at the October 88 Educom Conference
about Project Mercury--an electronic library on campus, serving
the computer science and engineering departments (initially). What
struck me was his choice of a Sun workstation or equivalent as the
minimum quality interface for the user (i.e. no AT's or Mac SE's, etc).
Evidently, the large screen is extremely important to Arms; he wants
people to read on screen. Even the current displays for the Mac, NeXT
and Sun just don't have the same amount of information for the eye
as does a paperback. Consequently, displays have to really improve
before you will get an English professor to read onine. I think, though,
the types of text retrieval software that NeXT is bundling will help
get people to use the digital library instead of the print version of the
same works.

Does anyone have thoughts about traditional publishers willingness
to go into a new medium (and distribution method)? I think most are
afraid of cannibalizing their print market. What is going to woo them
away? CD-ROM has done it to a very limited extent.

Steve Cisler
Connect: Libraries and Telecommunications
Box 992
Cupertino, CA 95015