[Summary]
As a sign of the times, with the ebook being nearly 30 years old, a
digitized version of the original Gutenberg Bible was available online
in November 2000 on the website of the British Library. Gutenberg
printed its Bible in 1454 in Mainz, Germany, perhaps printing 180
copies, with 48 copies still available in 2000, and two full copies at
the British Library. As they were a little different, both were
digitized in March 2000 by Japanese experts from Keio University of
Tokyo and NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Communications). The
images were then processed to offer a full digitized version on the web
a few months later, for the world to enjoy.
***
As a sign of the times, with the ebook being nearly 30 years old, a
digitized version of the original Gutenberg Bible was available online
in November 2000 on the website of the British Library.
# The Gutenberg Bible
In 2000, the digital book was nearly 30 years old. It was born in July
1971 with eText #1 of Project Gutenberg.
The print book was five centuries and a half old. Gutenberg printed its
Bible in 1454 in Mainz, Germany, perhaps printing 180 copies, with 48
copies still available in 2000, and two full copies at the British
Library. As they were a little different, both were digitized in March
2000 by Japanese experts from Keio University of Tokyo and NTT (Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone Communications). The images were then processed
to offer a full digitized version on the web a few months later, for
the world to enjoy.
# The ebook in late 2000
In late 2000, thousands of public domain works were freely available on
the web in digital libraries.
A number of bookstores and publishers had their own websites. Some of
them were born online, with all their transactions made through the
internet.
Alongside their traditional tasks of lending books or other documents,
and offering a collection of reference works, librarians helped their
patrons to navigate the web without being drowned, organized a
selection of websites for them, and created their own websites with an
online catalog and a digital library.
More and more books and periodicals were “only” digital, skipping the
cost of a print version. From “static” in print books, information
become “fluid” on the internet, and regularly updated.
Many authors were using the internet to seek information, disseminate
their work, exchange with their readers and collaborate with other
creators.
Some authors began searching how using hyperlinks could expand their
writing towards new directions, creating hypermedia novels and sites of
hyperfiction, while mixing text, image and sound.
Academic and scientific publishers began to reorganize their work and
favor online publishing, with prints versions only on demand. Some
universities made their own textbooks with a selection of chapters and
articles from a database, as well as comments from professors.
The internet became mandatory to find information, communicate, access
documents, and broaden our knowledge. People no longer needed to run
after information. Information was there, by the numbers, available on
our screen, often at no cost, including for those who studied in a
remote place, lived in the countryside, worked at home or were stuck in
a bed.
The web became a gigantic encyclopedia, a extensive library, a huge
bookstore and a full medium on its own.
Some people even read a book on the screen of a computer, a PDA or a
(still very expensive) ebook reader.