On Thursday, January 15 at 3:00 p.m. central, Tom Peters of TAP Information Services will host the first ebookworm online show of 2004. The featured guest is Library and e-book advocate David Rothman, author of NetWorld, The Silicon Jungle and other books. He runs TeleRead.org, devoted to the cause of well-stocked national digital libraries in the States and elsewhere.
Under TeleRead, thousands of copyrighted e-books and other items would go online for free, with provisions for fair compensation to copyright holders. Beneficiaries would range from schoolchildren to vision-impaired and dyslexic people, as well as senior citizens with limited mobility. Paper books would not vanish, but local libraries would be better able to serve special needs and save money on ephemeral items such as quickly forgotten bestsellers. TeleRead, an evolving proposal that dates back to 1991, calls for a distributed system with public librarians and others in different cities participating in acquisitions and management.
An enthusiastic user of Project Gutenberg--his favorite PG author right now is George Gissing--David enjoys e-books on cheapie Dell and Sony PDAs as well as an old Gemstar purchased for $70 on eBay. His wife, who suffers from health issues and cannot visit libraries as often as before, reads off her own Gemstar. In a different incarnation, David was a poverty beat reporter, another reason for his interest in access issues. His TeleRead-related writings have appeared in Computerworld, the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and elsewhere, including an MIT Press/ASIS information science collection (Scholarly Publishing: The Electronic Frontier).
To attend the program, go to http://www.talkingcommunities.com/entrance.pl?31122688174
type your name, no password is needed and click enter. A small ivocalize applet will download on your computer and then you will enter the online chat room. All you need to participate is an Internet connection, sound card, and speakers. You can interact via microphone or text chat. A microphone is not necessary. If you have questions, please contact Tom Peters at tapinformation@yahoo.com or Lori Bell at lbell927@yahoo.com.
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