Digitization Of The Book: A Report On Present Trends

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• Foreword
• Introduction

Foreword

The challenge for libraries serving people unable to read print is to change the old assumptions about library service and the distribution of information to new paradigms that fit the information age.

"The Library is no longer a place, it's a function...Universal access is a big issue, and libraries have a key role to play. Not every home can afford the hardware and link [necessary to access the Internet]." ¹

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the trends and research today and their potential for information equity for the print handicapped. This report is by no means comprehensive but it is a beginning as technology becomes outdated very quickly and new developments appear with increasing rapidity. The report will have achieved its purpose, however if it increases the understanding of libraries, service providers, and those involved in making books and information accessible to those unable to read print.

Since the invention of the printing press, the book has been the medium and the symbolic vehicle for recording and conveying human experience. However, it is mainly a print medium and has excluded those who are unable to use or access print for learning or communications. As a result, alternate media such as braille or audio books were developed to ensure access to print information. However, transcription to other formats is expensive, time consuming, and resource-intensive. Despite the best efforts over the years there is an enormous gap between the amount of published material available to the sighted population and that which is available to the print handicapped.

Today, the book as the premier medium for information dissemination is changing and acquiring new definition. Many factors account for this dynamic evolution of a medium that remained unchanged for centuries. The development of computers and their convergence with telecommunications has impacted both publishing and the traditional modes of information distribution. These advances have likewise affected alternate format publishing.

The application of evolving technologies to alternate format production, has resulted in more efficient production of braille and talking books. For example, twenty years ago braille books were produced by hand, using a Perkins brailler. Today they can be produced electronically, using digital source files and braille translation software. The computer generated braille book is read the same way as the Perkins produced book. However, it was produced in less time, and at a lower cost.

Likewise talking books have traditionally been mastered using an analog recording process. Today they can be produced using digital recording equipment. The digitally mastered talking book, while read on the same playback machine as the analog book, has a superior sound quality, and like the digital braille master, can be more easily updated for future print editions and manipulated for indexing purposes.

Print handicapped computer users have access to sources of information never available to them before. The Internet, and electronic publications from simple ASCII text files to multimedia books on CD-ROM can all be available to a blind reader with a computer equipped with adaptive technology such as text enlarging or synthetic speech software, or a refreshable braille display. However, there may be large portions of a multimedia book that are inaccessible or difficult to navigate because of their graphical nature. For example, multimedia products typically designed for the sighted market apply sound as an enhancement rather than creating audio books in their entirety.

The nature and concept of library service is also changing dramatically and at an unprecedented rate. Within the next decade, the concept of "libraries without walls" and of "virtual libraries" as services which deliver information both locally and globally, and link to sources of information worldwide will be common.

While a majority of Canadians, including those who are print handicapped, do not presently have access to a computer, the growing use of home computers is anticipated to create a strong market for digital books by the year 2000. Recent Canadian studies point to continuing growth in the use of home computers. Statistics Canada states that in 1995, 28.8 % of Canadian households had home computers, an increase of 477,000 households from 1994, and nearly triple the number from 1986. Ultimately it will be the marketplace that decides which products, services and formats are relevant. However, the digitization of the book into "bits" of data which can be compressed, packaged, transmitted and printed out in a variety of formats has increased the print handicapped reader's ability to access information in any format. The trend is towards applying technology to achieve information equity for the print handicapped.