I’ve just “upgraded” my audio and video software from RealNetworks. And guess what. For some reason, I can’t get NPR audio now on my Dell Optiplex. Not exactly an advertisement here for Rob Glaser and friends–or net.audio in general. But, look, RealAudio’s profits count more than my time, right? Gotta keep folks upgrading.
Ideally some publishers of e-book software can suffer similar experiences with RealAudio, show a little more empathy toward consumers, and take a Universal Consumer Format seriously.
A patron-friendly cause for librarians
Librarians can help. Think of your patrons, and if you go to the OeBF library conference on March 12, say “No” to proprietary formats. Put up with ’em now, but tell the vendors you’ll recall be much better off with a Universal Consumer Format.
Your opinions will count. As a Wall Street Journal story has pointed out, the e-book business increasingly sees libraries as an important market. The e-book software companies need you more than you need them.
So don’t wimp out. Tell software people and distributors that if they don’t fully back the development of a UCF, they may lose your business in the future to rivals more interested in “real books”–books that aren’t vulnerable to the format-related whims of techies and marketers.
Related reminder: Try out different formats on PDAs
Librarians should try out different e-book formats not just on desktops but also on cheapie PDAs. As Tom Peters points out in the Handheld Librarian, PDAs are “a major platform for reading e-books.” While many PDAs do come now with e-book software, it may not be the same program that a library vendor favors. Or it just may be a real hassle to run. The best solution so far, based on functionality, features and aesthetics, continues to be Mobipocket, which is much nicer than Adobe on inexpensive handhelds and which runs on a bunch of different platforms.
Until vendors raze the Tower of eBabel, however, you’ll ideally able to serve up books in different formats. This mess is great for format converters and other techies, but not so wonderful for readers, libraries, bookstores, publishers and writers.
