Digitization Of The Book: A Report On Present Trends

Appendix

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• Appendix

User Comments From Around the World (1996)

"I would be willing to use synthesized books of the nonfiction type as it would be more important to have them available quickly than to have them done by professional readers. Pleasure reading is another story though ... I am delighted to have a book in ASCII which contains needed data but I generally don't find reading novels, poetry or short stories appealing even with my Dec speech though I have hundreds of titles on CD-ROM. I suppose it is question of what one needs versus what we want or would like. Undoubtedly, the best quality reading issued for all titles you would like to have and having them released at the same time as they are in print would be perfect but who in their right mind would expect that during their lifetime?"

"While I love to read, I wouldn't want to give up recorded books. Aside from finding them relaxing, I think that we would deprive those who aren't computer literate, ....or who choose not to use such technology."

"I can see some use for magazines read by speech synthesizer ...You might run into difficulties in spelling and pronunciation. Well known names should be spelled correctly, and synthesizers would have to spell things such as Internet addresses. That might take some coding of the file that might take as much time as the current reading by humans."

"I think that distributing tapes that have been recorded with a synthesizer is an idea whose time has come. True, synthesized speech will never be as good as our current readers, but it might be more of a question of getting more bang for our ... bucks. It would be nice to read an unabridged bestseller while it is still a bestseller. We have been spoiled because we have actors, and very good ones, reading our books."

"I suspect that the distribution of books read from print would be as much or more time consuming than using a narrator. However, it sounds like a possible way for publishers who have books already in electronic format to inexpensively produce and sell books to people who need them on tape. It should reduce copyright concerns that come up when you talk about e-text. It's true a tape can be copied easier than a book, but who's going to listen to a book read by a speech synth that doesn't have to?"

"I get totally turned off after a synthesizer has been reading text after a few minutes. Even with Dectalk, the speech is not ... clear. The singsong narration is irritating. They will need to come a long way before any synthesizer ... would be suitable for replacing the current reading program."

"...a Web site with books in electronic text ... it would be nice to be able to browse the catalogue and download the book you really want to read."

"I prefer to read e-text books by synthesizer rather than tapes."

"I'd prefer these books so read to be non fiction books, and preferably manuals or how-to books, cookbooks, etc. I'm not sure I could warm to ... a synthesizer reading a fiction novel, or a novel with a storyline and plot. However, short items, such as those found in magazines, might be fine. This might make it possible for us to receive more magazines on a timely basis!"

"Much better to distribute the book in ASCII. Then the blind user can scan for key words etc."

"I'd like to see the library service try ... talking books on CD."

"It is ... too early to make a decision on technology, as things are still evolving rapidly. We will see a new CD format this year that has magnitudes of storage over conventional audio."

"The producers and distributers might use a standard way of distributing books/medium ... we should try to select a medium of the future. I think even CD's ... may not be a good choice..."