| Abstrakt: |
Whenever the future of the book or the publishing industry is raised as a topic of conversation or debate, the e-book occupies a disproportionately large role in that discussion. The reasons are fairly obvious: even as entire sub-industries rise and fall around it, the basic constellation of the publishing universe has remained largely unchanged. What then to make of this emphasis on e-books? Argues that the preoccupation of publishers, wholesalers, and libraries with the e-book is rooted squarely around their own anxieties about where the book industry is headed. Offers a brief history of the e-book to date as a useful window onto these players' broader, often ill-defined anxieties. Explains how, in the university press world, the slow, unsteady unveiling of The Great Digital Future has seen, loosely, five stages, at least three of which were fueled more by conjecture, presumption, and wishful thinking than by empiricism or experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
