E-book a new media for library

The world is experiencing a continuous change in the ways the society lives, communicates and so on. With a rapid growth and development in the use of modern information and communication technology and the Internet, a huge potential exists in the ways the information is published and mode available to the individual at home, institutions or libraries and information centers. The production and usage of e-documents is growing at a fast pace and warrants serious consideration, especially in libraries and information centers. The present article proposes to study various facts of the emerging area of e-books.

WHAT'S AN E-BOOK?

Eminent story writer Stephen King was the first person who published his book in the form of an e-book. Electronic books, or e-books, are books in computer file format and read on all types of computers, including handheld devices designed specifically for reading e-books. E-Books can be as familiar as their print counterparts or as unique as the electronic medium itself, containing audio and video or live hyperlinks. E-Books can be delivered by download or as email file attachment. E-Books on diskette or CD-ROM are sent by postal mail or sold in bookstores.

In "its simplest level, an e-book is a book just like any other book," says Phyllis Rossiter Modeland, former editor of the e-book reader electronic magazine The Running River Reader. "It has 'cover' art, a title page, an ISBN, a copyright notice, an editor and publisher for whom it was a labour of love—and an author who wrote it because she or he had to." Electronic formatting reduces warehousing and shipping costs, removes limits on number of pages or graphics and requirements for broad audience appeal.

E-Books give writers and publishers freedom to explore small niche markets and to step outside the mold to bring readers original creative books, unlimited by genre lines, market size or print capabilities. The e-books have great advantage.