The eBook is 40 (1971-2011) Part 7

# The Rocket eBook

The Rocket eBook was launched in 1998 as the first dedicated ebook reader by NuvoMedia, a company founded in 1997 in Palo Alto. The investors of NuvoMedia were Barnes & n.o.ble and Bertelsmann. NuvoMedia wanted to become "the electronic book distribution solution, by providing a networking infrastructure for publishers, retailers and end users to publish, distribute, purchase and read electronic content securely and efficiently on the internet". The Rocket eBook could connect to a computer (PC or Macintosh) through the Rocket eBook Cradle, a device with two cables, a cable for power through a wall transformer, and a serial cable for the computer.

# The SoftBook Reader

Shortly afterwards, SoftBook Press launched the SoftBook Reader, along with the SoftBook Network, "an internet-based content delivery service". The investors of Softbook Press were Random House and Simon & Schuster. With the SoftBook Reader, "people could easily, quickly and securely download a wide selection of books and periodicals using its built-in internet connection". The device, "unlike a computer, was ergonomically designed for the reading of long doc.u.ments and books."

# Other ebook readers

Other ebook readers were launched in 1999, for example the EveryBook Reader, launched by EveryBook, and the Millennium eBook, launched by Librius.

The EveryBook Reader was "a living library in a single book", with a "hidden" modem to dial into the EveryBook Store, for people "to browse, purchase, and receive full text books, magazines, and sheet music".

The Millennium eBook was a "small low-cost" ebook reader launched by Librius, a "full service e-commerce company". On the company website, a World Bookstore "delivered digital copies of thousands of books" via the internet.

All these ebook readers didn't last long. People would have to wait to get through the millenium to see the Gemstar eBook in the U.S. and the Cybook (1st generation) in Europe.

# The Gemstar eBook

The Gemstar eBook was launched in November 2000 after Gemstar bought in January 2000 Nuvomedia (author of the Rocket eBook) and SoftBook Press (author of the SoftBook Reader), the two companies that created the first ebook readers. Two versions of the Gemstar eBook were available for sale in the U.S., the REB 1100 (successor of the Rocket eBook) with a black and white screen, and the REB 1200 (successor of the SoftBook Reader) with a color screen, both produced under the RCA label, belonging to Thomson Multimedia. Gemstar tried to launch them in Europe too, beginning with Germany, while buying 00h00, a French publisher of ebooks, in September 2000. In fall 2002, cheaper ebook readers were launched as GEB 1150 and 2150, produced by Gemstar instead of RCA.

Sales were still far below expectations. The company stopped selling ebook readers in June 2003, and stopped selling ebooks the following month.

# The Cybook

The first European ebook reader didn't work well either. Developed by Cytale, a French company created by Olivier Pujol, the Cybook (21 x 16 cm, 1 kilo) was launched in January 2001. Its memory -- 32 M of SDRAM and 16 M of flash memory -- could store 15.000 pages, or 30 books of 500 pages. Sales were far below expectations, and Cytale closed its doors in July 2002. This model was later renamed Cybook 1st generation, waiting for more generations to come. The Cybook project was taken over by Bookeen, a company created in 2003 by Michael Dahan and Laurent Picard, two former engineers from Cytale. The Cybook 2nd generation was available in June 2004. The Cybook Gen3 (3rd generation) was available in July 2007, with a screen using the E Ink technology.

1999 > LIBRARIANS IN CYBERs.p.a.cE

[Summary]

To help their patrons deal with the internet, to select and organize information for them, to create and maintain websites, to check specialized online databases, and to update online catalogs became daily tasks for librarians. As stated in August 1999 by Bruno Didier, webmaster of the Pasteur Inst.i.tute Library in Paris, France: "Our relations.h.i.+p with both the information and the users has changed. We are increasingly becoming mediators, and perhaps to a lesser extent 'curators'. My present activity is typical of this new situation: I am working to provide quick access to information and to create effective means of communication, but I also train people to use these new tools.

(...) I think the future of our job is tied to cooperation and use of common resources. It is certainly an old project, but it is really the first time we have had the means to set it up."

To help their patrons deal with the internet, to select and organize information for them, to create and maintain websites, to check specialized databases and to update online catalogs became daily tasks for librarians.

Here are two examples, with Peter Raggett at the Central Library of OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and Bruno Didier at the Library of the Pasteur Inst.i.tute in Paris, France.

# At the OECD Central Library

Based at the OECD headquarters in Paris, the Central Library offered 60,000 monographs and 2,500 periodicals in 1998, as well as microfilms, CD-ROMs, and databases like Dialog, Lexis-Nexis and UnCover. The library began setting up its own webpages in 1996, on the intranet of the organization, in order to support the staff's research work.

Peter Raggett, deputy-head (and then head) of the Central Library, wrote in August 1999: "At the OECD Library we have collected together several hundred websites and have put links to them on the OECD intranet. They are sorted by subject and each site has a short annotation giving some information about it. The researcher can then see if it is possible that the site contains the desired information.

This is adding value to the site references and in this way the Central Library has built up a virtual reference desk on the OECD network. As well as the annotated links, this virtual reference desk contains pages of references to articles, monographs and websites relevant to several projects currently being researched at the OECD, network access to CD- ROMs, and a monthly list of new acquisitions. The library catalogue will soon be available for searching on the intranet. The reference staff at the OECD Library uses the internet for a good deal of their work. Often an academic working paper will be on the web and will be available for full-text downloading. We are currently investigating supplementing our subscriptions to certain of our periodicals with access to the electronic versions on the internet."

What about finding information on the internet? "The internet has provided researchers with a vast database of information. The problem for them is to find what they are seeking. Never has the information overload been so obvious as when one tries to find information on a topic by searching the internet. When one uses a search engine like Lycos or AltaVista or a directory like Yahoo!, it soon becomes clear that it can be very difficult to find valuable sites on a given topic.

These search mechanisms work well if one is searching for something very precise, such as information on a person who has an unusual name, but they produce a confusing number of references if one is searching for a topic which can be quite broad. Try and search the web for Russia AND transport to find statistics on the use of trains, planes and buses in Russia. The first references you will find are freight-forwarding firms that have business connections with Russia."

How about the future? "The internet is impinging on many peoples'

lives, and information managers are the best people to help researchers around the labyrinth. The internet is just in its infancy and we are all going to be witnesses to its growth and refinement. (...) Information managers have a large role to play in searching and arranging the information on the internet. I expect that there will be an expansion in internet use for education and research. This means that libraries will have to create virtual libraries where students can follow a course offered by an inst.i.tution at the other side of the world. Personally, I see myself becoming more and more a virtual librarian. My clients may not meet me face-to-face but instead will contact me by email, telephone or fax, and I will do the research and send them the results electronically."

# At the Pasteur Inst.i.tute Library

The Pasteur Inst.i.tutes are observatories for studying infectious and parasite-borne diseases. After being a "traditional" librarian, Bruno Didier created in 1996 the website of the Pasteur Inst.i.tute Library in Paris, France, and became its webmaster.

He explained in August 1999: "The main aim of the Pasteur Inst.i.tute Library website is to serve the Inst.i.tute itself and its a.s.sociated bodies. It supports applications that have become essential in such a big organization: bibliographic databases, cataloging, ordering of doc.u.ments and of course access to online periodicals (presently more than 100). It is a window for our different departments, at the Inst.i.tute but also elsewhere in France and abroad. It plays a big part in doc.u.mentation exchanges with the inst.i.tutes in the worldwide Pasteur network. I am trying to make it an interlink adapted to our needs for exploration and use of the internet. The website has existed in its present form since 1996 and its audience is steadily increasing. (...) I build and maintain the webpages and monitor them regularly. I am also responsible for training our patrons to use the internet."

What has changed in his work? "Our relations.h.i.+p with both the information and the users is what changes. We are increasingly becoming mediators, and perhaps to a lesser extent 'curators'. My present activity is typical of this new situation: I am working to provide quick access to information and to create effective means of communication, but I also train people to use these new tools. (...) I think the future of our job is tied to cooperation and use of common resources. It is certainly an old project, but it is really the first time we have had the means to set it up."

1999 > The ULYSSES BOOKSTORE ON THE WEB

[Summary]

Founded in 1971 by Catherine Domain in Paris, France, Librairie Ulysse (Ulysses Bookstore) is the oldest bookstore dedicated only to travel, with 20,000 books, maps and magazines, out of print and new, about any country, all packed up in a tiny s.p.a.ce, with some treasures impossible to find anywhere else. Catherine, an avid traveler herself, started a website in early 1999, as a virtual travel in the field of computing, despite knowing very little about computers. She wrote in late 1999: "My website is still pretty basic and under construction. Like my bookstore, it is a place to meet people before being a place of business. The internet is a pain in the neck, takes a lot of my time and I earn hardly any money, but that doesn't worry me... I am very pessimistic though, because it is killing off specialist bookstores."

Ten years later, in April 2010, Catherine was much less pessimistic, because the internet had allowed her to become a publisher of travel books.

Founded in 1971 by Catherine Domain in Paris, France, Librairie Ulysse (Ulysses Bookstore) is the oldest bookstore in the world dedicated only to travel. The bookstore launched its website in 1999 and a small publis.h.i.+ng venture in 2010.

Nested on Ile Saint-Louis surrounded by the river Seine, Librairie Ulysse has offered 20,000 books, maps and magazines, out of print and new, about any country, all packed up in a tiny s.p.a.ce, with some treasures impossible to find anywhere else.

# Beginning

What were the first steps of Librairie Ulysse? Catherine wrote on the bookstore's website: "After traveling for ten years on every continent, I stopped and told myself: 'What am I going to do for a living?' I was aware of the need to insert myself in a sociey in one way or another. I made a choice by deduction, refusing to have any boss or employee.

Remembering my grandfathers, one being a navigator, and the other one being a bookseller in Perigord [a region in Southern France], and noting that I needed to visit more than a dozen bookstores before finding any doc.u.mentation on a country as close as Greece, a 'travel bookstore' came to my mind during a world tour while I was sailing between Colombo and Surabaya.

Back in Paris -- I already lived in ile Saint-Louis -- I looked for a place, gathered information about the job of bookseller, did some interns.h.i.+ps in other bookstores, wrote index cards, and thought about a name for this new business.

One morning, while going out to buy my daily newspaper, I looked up and saw the sign of the bookstore 'Ulysse' [Ulysses in French], a reference to Joyce, at number 35 of street Saint-Louis-en-l'ile. 'Here is a name!', I told myself. I climbed two stairs to get into this very small 16m2 store with a single beam. Four guys played poker. 'What a cute bookstore!', I said. 'It is for sale', one of the players answered without looking up. 48 hours later, I was a bookseller. This was in September 1971. The first bookstore in the world specializing in travel was born.

Twenty years later, I was. .h.i.t by real estate development, like a number of people, and I had to move out. Luckily, my stubborn side -- I am a Taurus ascendant Taurus -- gave me the strength to move my bookstore a few meters away into a larger place, on number 26 of street Saint- Louis-en-l'ile, in a quite uncommon building. First, this was the first building in which I lived in ile Saint-Louis. Second, this building formerly hosted a bank branch that was famously burglarized by Spaggiari."

# In 1999

Even after she became a bookseller, Catherine went on traveling every summer, usually sailing on the Mediterranean, the Atlantic or the Pacific, while her boyfriend was running the bookstore.

She has been a member of the French National Union of Antiquarian and Modern Bookstores (SLAM: Syndicat National de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne), the Explorers' Club (Club des Explorateurs) and the International Club of Long-Distance Travelers (Club International des Grands Voyageurs).

Catherine started the bookstore's website in early 1999, as a virtual travel in the field of computing, despite knowing very little about computers.

She wrote in late 1999: "My site is still pretty basic and under construction. Like my bookstore, it is a place to meet people before being a place of business. The internet is a pain in the neck, takes a lot of my time and I earn hardly any money, but that doesn't worry me... I am very pessimistic though, because it is killing off specialist bookstores."