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The Transformed Library
ALA Editions purchases fund advocacy, awareness, and accreditation programs for library
professionals worldwide.
THE

E-Books, Expertise,
and Evolution

Jeannette

An imprint of the American Library Association • Chicago • 2013

Jeannette Woodward is a principal of Wind River Library and Nonprofit Consulting.
After a career in academic library administration, most recently as assistant director
of the David Adamany Library at Wayne State University, she began a second career in
public libraries as the director of the Fremont County Library System in the foothills
of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. Woodward is the author of several books,
including A Librarian’s Guide to an Uncertain Job Market (2011), Countdown to a New Library, 2nd
ed. (2010), Creating the Customer-Driven Academic Library (2008), Creating the Customer-Driven
Library: Building on the Bookstore Model (2005), and Countdown to a New Library: Managing the
Building Project (2000). Woodward holds a master’s degree in library and information sci-
ence from Rutgers University, with doctoral study at the University of Texas at Austin.

• • •
© 2013 by the American Library Association. Any claim of copyright is subject to appli-
cable limitations and exceptions, such as rights of fair use and library copying pursuant
to Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. No copyright is claimed for content in
the public domain, such as works of the U.S. government.
Printed in the United States of America

17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1

Extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of the information in this book;
however, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the mate-
rial contained herein.

ISBNs: 978-0-8389-1164-8 (paper); 978-0-8389-9628-7 (PDF); 978-0-8389-9629-4 (ePub);

978-0-8389-9630-0 (Kindle). For more information on digital formats, visit the ALA Store
at alastore.ala.org and select eEditions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Woodward, Jeannette A.
The transformed library : e-books, expertise, and evolution / Jeannette Woodward.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8389-1164-8
1. Libraries—Aims and objectives. 2. Libraries—Forecasting. 3. Libraries and
electronic publishing. 4. Libraries—Information technology. 5. Libraries and the
Internet. 6. Librarians—Effect of technological innovations on. 7. Library
science—Philosophy. 8. Libraries and society.
I. Title.
Z678.W675 2013
020­—dc23 2012023767

Cover design by Kirstin Krutsch.

Book design by Adrianna Sutton using Cartier and Bonveno typefaces.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

To my family: Laura, Chris, Lowell, John, and David, with all my love
CONTENTS

Introduction :: ix

1 Gutenberg Meets Kindle: The Arrival of Digital Books :: 1

2 Libraries vs. E-Publishers: The Library’s Point of View :: 13

3 The Age of High Anxiety: Threats That Fuel Library Nightmares :: 31

4 The Library in Cyberspace :: 44

5 Will the Coffee Shop Save Us?: The Library as Place :: 55

6 Library Careers That Won’t Go Away :: 68

7 Survival Strategies for Public Libraries :: 78

8 Survival Strategies for Academic Libraries :: 94

9 Survival Strategies for School Libraries :: 111

Conclusion :: 123
Index :: 127
INTRODUCTION

Looking back on the first decade of the twenty-first century, we can’t be blamed
for feeling somewhat depressed about our libraries and the situation they are
facing. During a decade that will always be known for the most dramatic eco-
nomic downturn since the Great Depression, libraries have fared badly. On the
one hand, library budgets have been slashed and some libraries have disap-
peared in a puff of smoke or a blot of red ink. On the other hand, pundits loudly
announce the death of libraries. All the materials that libraries select and catalog
and house and lend will soon be digitally available, they say, making libraries as
extinct as the dodo.

T H E D I G I TA L T RA N S I T I O N
Is this true, we wonder? What else could possibly provide libraries with a reason
for being if not these information-bearing objects? Think of the library science
courses, the conferences, the workshops, the manuals, the billions or perhaps
trillions of staff hours that have been devoted to the care of library materials.
Those of us in denial respond that no e-reader will ever replace the comfy, cozy,
tactile experience of paper and ink, but is this merely wishful thinking? If digital
files do replace most physical media, can libraries and librarians simply regroup,
restock their virtual shelves with virtual media, and continue to play much the
same role as in years gone by? Has the dismal economy clouded our vision and
made us view the future through unnecessarily dark lenses? On the other hand,
is the financial crisis actually propelling libraries toward a bleak future? Such
speculations inevitably lead to musings about our profession and the possibility
that we will be outsourced or become an extinct species. This book is intended
to provide a balanced assessment of the situation that confronts both libraries
and information professionals. It will present some possible future scenarios,
moving beyond rosy visions of patrons lovingly embracing handsome examples
of the printer’s art and Fahrenheit 451-spawned, apocalyptic nightmares of a
world without libraries.

D E F I N I N G T H E L I B RA RY
Although it may at first seem unnecessary, I’ll need to establish some boundar-
ies around my subject matter, and the best way to do that is to define clearly

:: ix
x :: The Transform ed L ibrary

what I mean by a library. Until fairly recently, the meaning of the term was clear
and unequivocal. Libraries were usually buildings filled with printed materials
and a trained staff to assist patrons using those materials. Libraries were main-
tained by local governments, academic institutions, or nonprofits. Special librar-
ies were a little different, but in general the definition was quite simple. More
recently, libraries added multimedia formats to their collections and then digital
materials that occupied no physical space. These materials were available on
the library’s computers and on the library’s website, so they were rather easily
absorbed into the definition.
Then digital libraries were created. The library and information science (LIS)
professionals and technical staff responsible for them were usually housed in
the library building. Their role consisted largely of converting certain significant
and perhaps inaccessible library-owned materials to digital formats and organiz-
ing them for more effective access. Such materials were usually included in the
library’s online catalog, and so there was little question that the digital library
was an extension of the traditional library, even though its collection did not
occupy space in the library stacks.

NEW DEFINITIONS
For many years, libraries had little competition when it came to organizing
and providing access to materials. However, as information, especially digital
information, grew rapidly in value, for-profit businesses found that they could
make money providing services that were once the exclusive province of librar-
ies. While libraries were slowly expanding their virtual presence, other organi-
zations like Google were taking giant leaps, using their vast financial assets to
digitize the world’s storehouse of books and other information resources. Such
organizations prefer their output to be viewed as libraries because we have a
solid reputation for altruism and public service. Subscription database vendors
also like the term. Thus, the term library became flexible, often including the
output of commercial businesses.
Nonprofit organizations also began taking part in library-like activities. For
example, groups of scientists got together to create preprint servers intended
to get around the ponderous, time-consuming requirements of peer-reviewed
journals. Preprints allow scientists to know what their peers are doing long
before they receive the official stamp of approval that journal publication repre-
sents. Researchers in other fields have developed similar collections, organized
in ways that sound very familiar to librarians. They intend to meet the informa-
tion needs of their users just as libraries exist to meet similar information needs.
In other words, once we accept the premise that digital libraries, which devel-
oped under the umbrella of traditional libraries, meet our definition of a library,
it’s hard to know where to stop.
 Introduction :: xi

For the purpose of this book, however, I’ve settled on a rather restrictive
definition. I am a librarian writing for others who see themselves as librarians,
whether digital or traditional. Although we may take on other titles, we view
ourselves as direct descendents of Ranganathan and Melvil Dewey. The future
well-being of preprint servers is important to many, but I’m going to limit my
definition so as to exclude projects that arise totally outside the traditional brick-
and-mortar library. I am also going to exclude the products of for-profit corpo-
rate entities like Google that may be seen as repackaging information resources
to enhance their profitability. Even though in making millions of public domain
works available to millions of people, Google has in a sense “out-libraryed” any
library, Google nevertheless exists for the purpose of making money. In fact,
as will later become evident, it remains to be seen whether such enterprises
pose future challenges and even dangers to libraries or whether partnerships
will arise that benefit all parties.

T H E R E C O G N I Z A B L E L I B RA RY
Perhaps I should also specify that according to the definition I will be using,
a library must be recognizable as such to the public. In other words, it must
meet their definition as well as mine. As I read futurist books and articles about
libraries, I sometimes come across visions that are exciting, but they describe
something that has evolved into an organization or institution today’s library
users would not recognize. Of course, our definitions will become increasingly
more flexible as we move into the future. Librarians pursuing their profession in
the 1920s or ’30s might not recognize today’s library but as we look back, we can
see a gradual evolution. There has been a steady, logical transition from then to
now. The library’s mission and goals are largely unchanged, although they have
been impacted by changes in both technology and society. The visions I am talk-
ing about may well be realized in the future, but something very unexpected
will need to happen. Some radical shift will need to occur.

PREDICTING CHANGE
Although in hindsight we can see that libraries have developed much as one
might expect them to, considering the changing environment, we must remem-
ber that we cannot turn our gaze toward the future with the same success. The
patterns we see so clearly when we look back do not provide much insight into
tomorrow’s innovations and institutions. Again and again pundits have been
wrong when predicting how computers will change human experience. The Jet-
sons’ jet packs never made it to prime time, and what futurist ever predicted the
culture-altering phenomenon of e-books?
Though librarians have coped well when confronted with change, they have
proven to be no more successful than anyone else at predicting it. Nevertheless,
xii :: The Transform ed L ibrary

we who have spent years identifying and anticipating customers’ needs should
be able to avoid most of the obvious errors of crystal ball gazing. It may be help-
ful to look at our experience more carefully and see whether we can discover any
“intimations” of the future. Again and again, when we look at innovative library
ideas and services that worked as compared to the failures, it appears that a keen
knowledge of human nature was at the core of the successes. Knowing what peo-
ple need is certainly important, but knowing what they enjoy and what makes
them feel comfortable is at least as important. I think as librarians, we missed the
boat with social networking. We saw how the use of cell phones exploded, not
merely as substitutes for landlines but as a source of companionship for people
who didn’t want to be alone. Text messaging provided an even more intimate
presence. Texters could go on doing what they were doing, knowing there was a
comforting message waiting from a friend.

RESPONDING TO CHANGE
Libraries have tended to observe these developments, but most have not really
understood how they relate to libraries. For example, some libraries have devel-
oped vital presences on Facebook and Google+, with hundreds or even thou-
sands of friends actively seeking togetherness on the library site, but more typi-
cal Facebook sites look like posters or brochures. There’s nothing alive about
them. Such libraries fail to understand that for their Facebook presence to be
successful, it must be an ongoing conversation. There must truly be a sense of
connection between the library’s “friends” and their library.

C H A N G I N G I N F O R M AT I O N S O U R C E S
Before moving on to the first chapter, I’d like to share some personal thoughts
about the Internet and the future of libraries. Years ago, when I first began
using the Internet for my own research, I very rarely strayed from the library’s
subscription databases. Gradually, I became bolder and my first milestone was
perhaps the realization that I was using Wikipedia for background information
far more often than the revered Britannica. If a fact is important, I continue to
double-check more traditional sources, but I’m often astounded at the quality
of Wikipedia articles. Other milestones followed as I discovered more and more
valuable resources, often covered by Creative Commons license. The present
book represents another milestone. In addition to interviewing many practic-
ing librarians, I turned to library blogs to get a better sense of how librarians are
feeling and how their libraries are changing.
What I found surprised me. Unlike many Internet blogs that are casual affairs,
sometimes poorly written opportunities for spreading unreliable information,
library blogs contain some of the most useful information available anywhere.
They are well-written, factually accurate, and on the cutting edge of our disci-
 Introduction :: xiii

pline. I might have expected that librarians would write literate, grammatical
prose, but I did not anticipate that in many cases, these professional blogs would
be more insightful than articles found in “A”-list library journals. When I thought
about it, however, it made perfect sense. As a group, librarians rank very high
on IQ charts; they’re technically savvy, read widely, and consequently tend to be
good writers. The blog format provides the near-perfect opportunity for them to
use their talents. While reading an especially thoughtful post, it occurred to me
that blogs may be an invaluable library survival tool. They allow librarians in the
trenches to share their experiences, thus discouraging one another from making
wasteful mistakes, and spreading the word about successful projects. My blog
discoveries served to reinforce my strong conviction that the future depends
largely on us—in other words, on committed LIS professionals who are at the
helm, steering libraries around rocky shoals into calmer waters.
 GUTENBERG
MEETS KINDLE
Th e A rrival of Digital Books

A
ny useful predictions concerning the future of libraries must take into
consideration a plethora of issues. Nearly every change in both our
economy and our society will inevitably be felt by the library. However,
if we look back at the last thirty or so years of library evolution, the changes
that immediately spring to mind have to do with technology. Computers have
both eliminated and created library jobs. They have radically changed the way
libraries function. That means that a realistic analysis of technology trends,
including newly emerging technologies, is essential. The problem is that most
futurists and other technology gurus have been notoriously inaccurate. Much
or perhaps most of what they envisioned never happened, while breathtaking
developments that completely altered the way we conduct our daily lives went
unnoticed until they were fait accompli.

W hy F uturists G et I t W rong
Every once in a while, of course, someone gets it right. Alvin Toffler was spot on
when, in 1980, he envisioned the electronic cottage where people could meet
their personal needs and conduct successful businesses without leaving home.
His insight was truly amazing considering that as he was writing The Third Wave,
personal computers were little more than toys.1 Technology in a typical house-
hold included only a television, record player, and single-line telephone. Yet for
every futurist like Toffler who got it right, there must be dozens of dreamers
who failed to understand key technical issues or the way human beings respond
to new inventions. Take, for example, the world inhabited by that cartoon fam-
ily, The Jetsons. We are not much closer to relying on “jet packs” for routine trans-
portation than we were when the program first aired. Although the technology
is available to lift human beings into the air and propel them from place to
place, widespread use of such a technology would cause innumerable problems.
Something may happen to make such a mode of transportation safe and effi-
cient, but it is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Instead, society is under pres-
sure to move from the transport of single individuals, an activity that consumes

:: 1
2 : :  chapter one

vast amounts of fossil fuel, to mass public transportation to accommodate our

ever-growing urban population and conserve dwindling natural resources.
Similar mistakes were made by Paul Ehrlich. His book The Population Bomb
predicted that by the end of the twentieth century, the human race would
reproduce to the point of explosion, greatly exceeding available resources. Mass
starvation would sweep the globe and civilization would come to a screeching
halt. Many countries would collapse because of their inability to feed their citi-
zens and would cease to exist. Although Ehrlich’s failure was based on a num-
ber of incorrect assumptions, one of the most basic was assuming that human
beings would go on exactly as they had in the past, failing to respond to the
problems that confronted them. He did not take technological innovation into
consideration or the possibility that an environmental movement could effect
major change. Human beings adapt to their environment and that is how they
survive. Just because events followed a particular pattern or blueprint in the
past does not mean that they will continue to do so.

Anticipating Paradigm Shifts

Also consider the disconnect between IBM founder Thomas Watson and today’s
smartphone environment. A smartphone is actually a computer that doubles
as a telephone and performs a variety of other functions. It would not exist if
it had not been for the innovative work of Watson and other early computer
scientists. However, Watson predicted that it would take no more than a few
dozen computers to satisfy market demand. He envisioned only large corpora-
tions and research facilities having any need for them. Yet today, the average
person has a computer in his pocket, another at home, and yet another at work.
The same kind of myopia has been characteristic of most predictions, and it is
not until the moment has almost arrived that most of us get a glimpse into the
future. When and how do we become aware that our world has changed in a
fundamental way? When do we first become conscious of those misty glimmers
of the future that gradually become clear and detailed images? At what point
does the totally improbable become the perfectly natural and we feel confident
enough to plan our lives and our libraries around it?

A Personal Experience
Consider my own experience with the evolution of digital books. Sometime
around 1995, I wrote an article about future libraries.2 Computer users were surf-
ing the Web with Netscape and Lycos, the forerunners of modern “web crawler”
search engines. If you’re an old-timer, you may remember that Magellan, Excite,
AltaVista, and Infoseek soon followed. That was the digital world as I was then
experiencing it. Even using those relatively primitive search engines, it was not
hard to predict that library customers would soon lose patience with printed
 Gutenberg Meets Kindle :: 3

reference works. Once they became accustomed to typing a few words into a
search box and immediately discovering dozens of articles and websites, they
would be unwilling to spend hours poring over indexes printed in tiny type
fonts.
Journal articles stored on CD-ROMs also made their appearance about that
time, and though it was clunky to load and unload disks each time you needed
another article, they were certainly more convenient than searching through
dusty periodical stacks. It became clear from such developments that libraries
would not long continue to maintain bound back runs of most newspapers and
other periodicals. From there, it was not too big a stretch to imagine that digital
versions of current magazines and newspapers might someday be available and
fully searchable on the Internet.
What didn’t make sense to me, however, was any sort of future for electronic
books. If one were going to read a longer work from beginning to end, a task
spread over at least several days, there seemed to be nothing comparable to the
comfort and efficient design of the printed book. When I wrote about library
design in 2000 in Countdown to a New Library,3 I still felt much the same way. Proj-
ect Gutenberg was speeding up production, and thanks to improved scanners
and optical character recognition software, a number of e-books were widely
available. However, this was surely a drop in the bucket compared to the mil-
lions of books housed in libraries. I cautioned my readers that the digital world
was changing rapidly and some media were going the way of the duck-billed
platypus, but it didn’t appear that printed books were in any immediate danger.

E-Publishing Explodes
My thoughts continued to evolve but it was not until 2009, as I was editing
the second edition of Countdown to a New Library,4 that I had my “Aha!” experi-
ence. A group of librarians were having coffee. We had all attended a confer-
ence program and since it ended a little early, we decided to take a quick cof-
fee break. Somehow the conversation turned to e-books and experiences with
vendors. One of the men in the group admitted that he was looking for a cheap
e-book service that would allow his library to appear up-to-date and high-tech
but one that wouldn’t cost a lot of money. “I just don’t see it going very far, but
it looks good for the library.” Another librarian thought he should be more posi-
tive. “We’ve been lending e-books for a few years and they’re pretty popular.
Of course, they’ll never replace print but they’re fine for what they do.” Then
a third librarian chimed in with that comment so many of us have made: “No,
nothing will ever replace the touch and smell of books. People will always want
the real thing.”
It was then that lightning flashed and the ground shook. My technology
timetable was irrevocably altered and those years before e-books dominated the
4 : :  chapter one

market shrank like a balloon that has lost its air. It wasn’t that I had been blind
to e-reader technology. When Amazon’s Kindle arrived in 2007, I was fascinated
by the electronic paper technology on which it was based. I had even purchased
my first e-reader and loved it. Standing in a long supermarket line, I discovered I
could reach into my pocket, pull out my reader, and go immediately to the page
where I last stopped reading. I could remove myself from the irritating situation
of standing in line, and as long as I reserved enough brain power to push my
cart ahead, I could contentedly remain immersed in my mystery story.

Nostalgia for Printed Books

Getting back to my coffee klatch, I knew that I myself had said much the
same thing about the touch and smell of printed books. I own way too many
books and they occupy a ridiculously large amount of space in my home. A
friend asked why I, a librarian, didn’t just borrow my books from the library. I
responded that libraries aren’t open at 3:00 a.m. on sleepless nights when books
are the best of companions. Neither is the library convenient if I merely want to
look something up or reread a favorite poem. Thus, I find excuses for holding on
to far too many books that I never quite finish or will never read again.
Looking around at the coffee drinkers (decaf actually), it struck me that
most of us were about the same age, meaning what you might euphemistically
call “mature.” Printed books had been our companions since we first learned to
read. Wasn’t much of what I was hearing a combination of nostalgia and firmly
entrenched habit? I remembered times when I was traveling alone and was forced
to wait for hours in a grimy, impersonal airport enduring one long flight delay
after another. The paperback I pulled from my purse was certainly not bound in
leather and the smell of cheap paper was not especially appealing, but the finest
first edition would not have given me any more comfort than that dog-eared old
friend. Is there really any reason why readers won’t turn to their e-books for the
same comfort and reassurance? The answer, of course, is that touch and smell
really have little bearing on how we choose most of the objects in our lives. Think-
ing back over the other negative comments voiced by the group, none were based
on solid fact. Engaging in nostalgia can be an enjoyable pastime, but the future of
the book will depend on more objective considerations.

H ow W e R ead P rinted T e x t
How do e-text and e-readers differ from printed books? To make any intelli-
gent predictions about the future of printed books, we probably need to spend
a little time understanding how our eyes see and our brains process printed
characters. It turns out that the brain is very fussy. The brain objects when a
block of text does not look like the blocks of text it has become accustomed to.
Throughout history, loud objections have been raised with the arrival of each
 Gutenberg Meets Kindle :: 5

new media format. William Wordsworth’s sister insisted he was damaging his
mind reading the newspapers of the day. She was reacting to the new format of
a large page on which multiple columns of text were placed side by side, thus
creating a very disorienting experience for the reader. There may be nothing
inherently better about the layout of a printed book, but the human brain has
become accustomed to it.
If you think about a typical web page, it may seem as if the webmaster is delib-
erately trying to disorient the reader. Some lines of text contain twice the number
of characters as a typical page in a printed book, making it nearly impossible for
our eyes to scan the lines without losing our place. On the other hand, some col-
umns are so narrow that a line consists of no more than three or four words and
they may be contained in small boxes thrust in the middle of longer lines of text.
Add to that the many ads that are positioned more prominently than the text
we want to read and the brain naturally rebels. Because we are allowed no orga-
nized sense of the whole page, we don’t know where to look first, so our reading
becomes confused and out of sequence. In addition, there are constant distrac-
tions in what might be called the margins that encourage us to abandon the text
we’re reading and click on an appealing graphic or headline.

Viewing a Computer Monitor

Then there’s the problem of the computer screen itself. Light from early com-
puter monitors flickered so constantly that they were the cause of frequent
headaches. More recently, reading has become easier as computer screens have
improved. Users have also become more accustomed to them, their brains more
readily accepting differences between computer text and printed text. How-
ever, people read more slowly on screen, often by as much as 20–30 percent.
Tests of student comprehension also showed very significant loss compared to
paper, but those differences have diminished in more recent studies.
Since reading on screen requires more effort, it can be more tiring. However,
in the case of computer users who have been reading e-text for a number of
years, the differences are not great and are noticeable only for difficult text.
However, the ability to flip back and forth in a printed book aids substantially in
comprehension, and the word-search capability usually provided by computer
programs is not a very satisfactory substitute. Human brains have also become
skilled at snapping pictures of how individual pages look and remembering
where information appears on a page. Such memories are far from exact but
they speed the process considerably.

Browsing
It is possible, however, that librarians place too much value on the advantages of
browsing, both in books and among library stacks. It is likely that the precision
6 : :  chapter one

of computer searching adds substantially to comprehension. Many of us have

had the experience of pulling one book and then another from its shelf in the
stacks, scanning a few pages, and then having a kind of “Eureka!” experience.
Our active brains, coupled with the physical experience of browsing, produced
a realization or connection that might not otherwise have occurred to us. How-
ever, Alan Liu, department chair and professor of English at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, writes: “Show me one person who has made a ser-
endipitous discovery while wandering the library stacks, and I will show you a
thousand whose eyes glazed over at the sheer anomie, inefficiency, and mean-
inglessness of it all.”5
On the other hand, the distractions associated with e-text may increase con-
fusion. While one waits for a page to load, the mind wanders. If the wait is more
than a few seconds, we have a tendency to click away from the text to check our
e-mail or even look at the time. In tests of office workers using computers, it
was discovered that they switched tasks approximately every three minutes and
it took over twenty-three minutes for them to return to their tasks. Users are
more likely to click away from less interesting to more interesting text, making
it harder to concentrate on difficult material.

No Hard-Wiring
Maryanne Wolf is a faculty member in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child
Development at Tufts University. She believes that humans have no genetic pre-
disposition to read. “Each young reader has to fashion an entirely new ‘reading
circuit’ afresh every time. There is no one neat circuit just waiting to unfold . . .
This ‘open architecture’ of the reading circuit makes the young reader’s devel-
oping circuit malleable to what the medium (e.g., book, computer text, etc.)
provides. And that, of course, is the problem. No one really knows the ultimate
effects of immersion in digital media on the young developing brain. We do
know a great deal, however, about the formation of the expert reading brain
that most of us possess up to this point in history.”6
Does this mean that we adults who developed brain circuitry to read printed
books experience difficulties with digital text that children who learn to read on
computers never experience? Could it be that in just a generation, we will see
the end of printed books? Watching my three-year-old grandson read literally
hundreds of children’s books on his mother’s Kindle Fire leads me to think so.
I certainly could not read at age three. However, David Gelernter, professor of
computer science at Yale University, doesn’t agree. “All reading is not migrating
to computer screens. So long as books are cheap, tough, easy to ‘read’ from out-
side (What kind of book is this? How long is it? Is this the one I was reading last
week? Let’s flip to the pictures), easy to mark up, rated for safe operation from
beaches to polar wastes and—above all—beautiful, they will remain the best of
 Gutenberg Meets Kindle :: 7

all word-delivery vehicles.”7 He goes on to suggest integrating chips into books

and not the other way around. That way he could make the book beep when he
can’t find it, search text online, and download updates. He suggests inserting a
chip and battery into the binding to accomplish these tasks but when they fail
to function, he can still read the book. One especially good point he makes is
that technologists have decreed the disappearance of the book without bother-
ing to understand it. They don’t really understand the physical side of reading.
Nevertheless, the computer makes it possible to absorb information in
entirely new ways that cannot be measured by traditional tests of speed or
comprehension. For example, if you type a single term, the search function lets
you move around an e-book so rapidly that you can get a sense for the entire
work. You can follow a specific topic from page to page and chapter to chapter,
using the search engine to restructure the book to meet your own needs and
avoid wasting time on peripheral information. Hypertext even allows you to
follow your own thoughts and questions, diverging from the somewhat “single-
minded” linear outline of a book. Of course, hypertext can be viewed as yet
another distraction, sending you off on different tangents that take you further
and further away from the book you set out to read.

T he A rri val of the E - R eader

Although electronic gadgets specifically intended for reading text have been
available for a number of years, it was not until Amazon introduced the Kin-
dle that they began attracting a lot of public attention. Electronic readers
specifically intended for reading book files have altered many of our assump-
tions about reading and the brain. E-readers like those marketed by Amazon,
Sony, and Barnes & Noble share characteristics of both computer text and ink-
imprinted paper. However, since they are a recent arrival, research on them is
still in its infancy.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that e-readers are considerably more comfort-
able for reading lengthy works than computers, and many people read them
as quickly as they do print formats. Screens are easier to read than computer
monitors because electronic ink technology avoids problems like backlighting
and flicker. Because readers can make type larger or smaller, e-text is sometimes
easier to read than printed books. Browsing through multiple pages is some-
what awkward, and it can be annoying to wait for the page to turn. E-readers
are much smaller and lighter than either computers or most hardback books,
so they’re comfortable to hold for long periods. Contrast can be a problem in
low light but, of course, this is true for printed works as well. Illustrations are
currently a weakness, and it seems that it will be quite a while before e-reader
illustrations rival the brilliant images found in today’s coffee-table books.
However, most of the problems cited here appear to be “fixable.” At this point
8 : :  chapter one

in time, it seems that most e-book customers are enjoying their new readers “in
addition to,” not “instead of,” their printed books.

Amazon Kindle
For several years, Kindles completely dominated the e-reader market. This was
largely because Amazon had grown into such a huge online presence, calling
itself the largest bookstore in the world. The Kindle itself was also extraor-
dinarily user-friendly. It was designed to download new e-titles with a single
click. From the beginning, Kindle had Wi-Fi capability, so there was no need to
transfer files from computer to e-reader. 3G models followed so readers could
purchase books anywhere at any time. A selection of free books kept readers
coming back to the Kindle store, and free samples seduced customers with the
potato-chip principle: once they’d sampled a title, they wanted more. Kindle
was quickly joined by several other readers, each offering either a lower price
or a feature that assured it at least a small chunk of the market. So many com-
petitors emerged that Kindle prices dropped dramatically; currently the basic
model is available for $79. Free Kindle software has made it possible for users to
synchronize their e-books on any compatible device. The Kindle format is pro-
prietary, however, and e-books are not compatible with other e-readers.
For a time, Amazon’s dominant position appeared to be weakening as other
brands like Barnes & Noble’s Nook cut into its market share. However, the
recent settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department against major
publishers has strengthened Amazon’s hand. The suit alleged that publishers
were colluding to raise the price of e-books and prevent Amazon from selling
them at bargain prices. High volume and aggressively low prices have been
largely responsible for Amazon’s success, so Amazon appears to be back in the
driver’s seat.

Sony Readers
It seems appropriate to give Sony’s e-book reader, called the Reader, a bit more
attention here, not because it is Amazon’s strongest competitor but because the
company has consistently courted libraries. As librarians, we can be forgiven
for sometimes thinking that e-book publishers and distributors are determined
to shun us. Shortly after the first Sony Reader arrived on the market, the com-
pany created the Sony Reader Library Program. Instructions for locating a par-
ticipating library and checking out e-books are prominently displayed on their
website. Libraries receive free e-readers and a variety of promotional materials.
Because Sony uses the standard EPUB file format, the company promises pur-
chasers of their e-readers that they can get e-books from a variety of vendors,
but they make it especially easy to download from the online Sony Reader Store.
The store is not only well supplied with recent books but links to Google’s vast
 Gutenberg Meets Kindle :: 9

collection of public domain titles as well. At this writing, Sony has introduced
a new tablet computer intended to compete with the Kindle Fire and Barnes &
Noble’s Nook Tablet. It is worrisome that at this writing, Sony is not accepting
new libraries into the program, and we can’t help but wonder whether things
are going well. Another downside is that Sony’s market share in the United
States is not large. It seems to do better in Europe and Asia, but the United
States is, of course, the largest market.

Other Competitors
As mentioned above, the Nook is Barnes & Noble’s e-reader entry into the mar-
ket. It comes with a feature that allows readers to lend their e-books to other
Nook owners for two weeks and has quite a lot of space for users’ own personal
content. The Nook also uses the nonproprietary EPUB file format and so is com-
patible with library e-book collections. The newest Nook boasts “GlowLight”
which illuminates the e-ink screen, allowing readers to enjoy the higher e-ink
quality and still read comfortably under low light conditions.
The Kobo Company based in Toronto has introduced its own e-ink products
to the market, the $80 Kobo Touch and the $180 Kobo Vox. Though their market
share is not large, the company has many enthusiastic customers. The Spring
Design Alex eReader is technically sophisticated but priced at $399, and is beyond
the budgets of most people. However, its dual screens, one of which is a full-color
touch screen and the other an e-ink screen, may attract high-end customers.

The iPad and Other Tablet Computers

Although e-readers have only been on the scene for a few years, their supremacy
is being challenged by the emergence of small, easy-to-use tablet computers.
Most people prefer e-ink-based readers to backlit computer monitors, but they
perform one function and one function only. Ideally, most customers would like
to be able to enjoy their e-ink screens on a small portable device that also acts
as a fully functional personal computer. Netbook computers were the first to
attempt to fill this need. They were much lighter in weight than traditional lap-
tops and almost as convenient as dedicated e-readers. Nevertheless, it was some-
what burdensome to go through the usual computer procedures (e.g., startup,
loading and unloading software) just to read a book. The arrival of Apple’s iPad
tablet revolutionized the market with a computer that was light in weight and
which incorporated much of the convenience of dedicated e-readers. The iPad’s
9” color display, instant page-turn, two-page layout, and computer functional-
ity make it a very acceptable e-reader substitute for most users. It hasn’t solved
the problem of the backlit screen, but it can do so much more than a dedicated
device that, at prices ranging from $499 to $630, it became an instant sensation
and other companies rushed to get into the tablet market.
10 : :  chapter one

It was quickly discovered that the Windows operating system was not
designed to work efficiently in the tablet environment and so most of Apple’s
competitors now use Google’s Android operating system. Both Kindle and
Barnes & Noble have come out with hybrids that are part e-reader, part Android
tablet (at this writing, Sony has announced its own tablet with similar specs).
Although they have backlit screens, both have found ways to make e-text look
more like their dedicated, e-ink reader screens. Although most users still pre-
fer reading e-ink, the new tablets are so small and so convenient that they are
quickly making wide swaths across the marketplace. With a Nook Tablet or
Kindle Fire tucked into purse or backpack, users need never be without access
to their personal documents, e-mail, or the Internet. As cell phones become
smarter and computers shrink, we are approaching a time when a large part of
the population will have access to a computer wherever they are.

Reading Software
In addition to dedicated readers, most vendors like Amazon and Barnes &
Noble also provide software that can be installed on smartphones, as well as
Android, Apple, and Windows computers, allowing users to purchase, down-
load, and read the books for sale on their websites. Though smartphones have
very small screens, it may be hard to justify spending two or three hundred
dollars on another device when you can download a book to your phone. Blio
is free e-reader software that’s not format-specific and can be loaded on almost
any computer. Users thus have a lot of options when it comes to reading their
e-books. It remains to be seen whether dedicated e-readers will continue to
thrive or be replaced by multifunctional alternatives.
So how will all this impact the future of the book? The Pew Internet and
American Life Project released its report on the “The Rise of E-Reading” in April
2012.8 It found the following:

• One-fifth of adults have read an e-book in the past year.

• The average e-book reader has read 24 books in the past year. This
number was much higher than for readers of printed books.
• 41 percent of tablet computer owners and 35 percent of owners of
e-reading devices say they spend more time reading now than they did
in the past.
• On a typical day, four times as many people are reading e-books than
was the case two years ago.
• 42 percent of readers of e-books depend primarily on a computer, 41
percent of readers of e-books use dedicated e-readers like Kindles or
Nooks, 29 percent of readers of e-books do so on their cell phones, and
23 percent of readers of e-books depend on a tablet computer.
 Gutenberg Meets Kindle :: 11

• Survey respondents preferred e-books to print for speed, accessibility,

and portability. They preferred printed books when reading to children
or sharing books with others.
• More than half of e-book users prefer to buy rather than borrow.
• People who read e-books are more likely to be under age 50, have some
college education, and live in households earning more than $50,000.

Although there are definitely advantages (like color illustrations) to printed

books, it is obvious that the e-reader business is booming. Early assumptions
that the public would not accept e-readers appear to be unfounded. E-book
prices are often higher than paperback prices and may be much higher than
used books. However, it seems inevitable that the number of printed books will
decline, so fewer used books will be available. Libraries can’t afford to hide their
heads in the sand. If libraries are to flourish in the twenty-first century, e-book
circulation will need to become a high priority.

N otes
1. Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (New York: Morrow, 1980).
2. Jeannette Woodward, “Auto Aces or Accident Victims: Librarians on the Information
Superhighway,” American Libraries, November 1995.
3. Jeannette Woodward, Countdown to a New Library: Managing the Building Project
(Chicago: American Library Association, 2000).
4. Jeannette Woodward, Countdown to a New Library: Managing the Building Project, 2nd ed.
(Chicago: American Library Association, 2010).
5. “Does the Brain Like E-Books?” New York Times Online, April 18, 2010,
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/does-the-brain-like-E-books/.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Pew Research Center, Pew Internet and American Life Project, “The Rise of
E-Reading,” April 5, 2012, http://libraries.pewinternet.org/files/legacy-pdf/The%20
rise%20of%20e-reading%204.5.12.pdf.

R esources
“Books Have Many Futures.” Library Administrator’s Digest 45, no. 8 (October 2010): 58–59.
Deahl, R. “How E-Book Sales Compare to Print . . . So Far.” Publishers Weekly 257, no. 43
(November 1, 2010): 4.
Helgren, J. E. “Booking to the Future.” American Libraries 42, no. 1/2 (January/February
2011): 40–43.
Milliot, J. “Digital Reader Penetration Accelerates.” Publishers Weekly 257, no. 47 (Novem-
ber 29, 2010): 3.
12 : :  chapter one

Mueller-Hanson, R. A., et al. “Preparing to be ‘Future Ready.’” Information Outlook 15, no.
4 (June 2011): 15–17.
Mulvihill, A. “iRise: Visualizing the Future.” Information Today 28, no. 7 (July/August 2011):
28.
“Pulping the Hardback?” Library Administrator’s Digest 46, no. 2 (February 2011): 14.
Robinson, C. W. “The March of the E-Books” [commentary]. Library Administrator’s Digest
45, no. 8 (October 2010): 6.
 LIBRARIES VS.
E-PUBLISHERS
Th e L I BRA RY’ S P OINT OF VIEW

C
entral to an analysis of the library’s future is an understanding of the
role of digital materials, especially the dramatic success of e-books
in the marketplace. Librarians, of course, have not been sitting idle,
and most libraries lend e-books on a routine basis. However, the relationship
between libraries and e-book publishers is in its infancy and has not thus far
been very cordial. E-books have not really taken off in most libraries, and librar-
ians tend to blame both publishers and distributers like Amazon for putting
unnecessary barriers between library users and e-books. Publishers, for their
part, are very wary after the near deathblow dealt to the music industry by ille-
gal downloading. Many are not anxious to work with libraries.

W orking with E - B ook P ublishers

Libraries have been anxious to increase e-book circulation because the elec-
tronic format is popular and engages some readers who may view printed
books as antiques. However, they have discovered the titles they need are often
unavailable. E-book distributors sometimes fill their catalogs with less popular
titles while best sellers are unavailable. A high school teacher in New York made
a determined search for e-texts to support English classes. One would imagine
that since these tended to be older books, they would not be hard to find. How-
ever, she was able to obtain fewer than half the needed titles. When informally
sampling titles supplied by some e-book services, librarians have found large
numbers of books in the public domain that are freely available through the
Google Books program.
Why are so few front-list titles available through the distributors serving
libraries? In general, the answer is that publishers won’t work with them. Pen-
guin opted out of a distribution agreement with OverDrive, which provides
content distribution to many libraries in the United States. Penguin will no
longer sell its e-books and audiobooks directly to libraries or make them avail-
able through services that supply libraries. At this writing, Penguin is said to
be negotiating continuance agreements with libraries to allow distribution of

:: 13
14 : :  chapter two

works that have already been purchased, but it is not open to a future relation-
ship. The publisher made its decision after Amazon decided to allow libraries to
lend Kindle content.
HarperCollins has notified the vendors that provide e-book services to librar-
ies that their books may be circulated only twenty-six times before the license
expires. HarperCollins has also requested personal information about the people
who check out e-books, information that librarians have scrupulously guarded.
Random House has expressed its commitment to continue working with librar-
ies, but in March 2012 the publisher tripled the price it charged library e-book
distributors. The price of a book that sold for about $20 in print rose to about
$120 when obtained through OverDrive. However, all its front-list and backlist
titles are available for library lending. Macmillan does not make e-books avail-
able to libraries with the exception of Palgrave Macmillan, a subsidiary that
publishes scholarly titles. Simon & Schuster e-books are not available for library
lending, but digital audio titles are.
In Britain, the Publishers’ Association announced a policy for library lend-
ing of e-books that certainly does not meet the libraries’ needs, but it at least
opens the door to further communication. Stephen Page, CEO of Faber and
Faber, addressing a library conference in the United Kingdom, said that if librar-
ies start lending e-books, it could serve to “undo the entire market for e-book
sales.”1 The policy propounded by the Publishers’ Association would require
that library users come to the library’s physical premises to download e-books at
library computers onto their mobile devices. There would be no remote down-
loading. The fee paid by the library would cover the right to lend one copy to
one individual at any given time, and users would be strictly limited by the
library’s geographical service area. Page went on to say, “We will now work with
the digital library suppliers to ensure that this service can be quickly brought
to libraries.”2 Much of the attraction of e-books is their convenience. Bringing
one’s mobile device to the library and then connecting it to the library’s com-
puter system seems fraught with problems. The procedure could endanger the
security of both the customers’ devices and the library’s computers. The policy
even seems to preclude the possibility of a wireless download within the library.
Circulating e-books thus becomes considerably less convenient than circulating
printed books for both the library staff and their customers.

Sources of Conflict
Library e-book procedures have been evolving over the last few years and fol-
low essentially the same pattern as printed books. E-books are checked out for
the library’s standard loan period, become inaccessible after that time unless
renewed, and may not be used by more than one library user at a time. In other
words, it would seem that neither libraries nor library users can exploit pub-
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
Mrs. de Trappe. You seem absent-minded, my dear Edith. [Pause.] I
must be going now. Where are Arthur and James? We have not a
moment to lose. We are going to choose wedding presents. James is
going to choose Arthur's and Arthur is going to choose James's, so
there can be no jealousy. It was I who thought of that way out of the
difficulty. One does one's best to be nice to them, and then
something happens and upsets all one's plans. Where is Cyril?
Lady Dol. I am afraid Cyril is not at home.
Mrs. de Trappe. Then I shall not see him. Tell him I am angry, and
give my love to Julia. I hope she does not disturb you when you are
in the drawing-room and have visitors. So difficult to keep a grown-
up girl out of the drawing-room. Where can those men be? [Enter
Lord Doldrummond, Mr. Featherleigh, and Mr. Banish.] Ah! here they
are. Now, come along; we haven't a moment to lose. Good-bye,
Edith.
[Exeunt (after wishing their adieux) Mrs. de Trappe, Mr. Featherleigh,
and Mr. Banish, Lord Doldrummond following them.]
Lady Dol. [Stands alone in the middle of the room, repeating.] Cyril
and—Sarah Sparrow! My son and Sarah Sparrow! And he has met
her through the one woman for whom I have been wrong enough to
forget my prejudices. What a punishment!
[Julia enters cautiously. She is so unusually beautiful that she barely
escapes the terrible charge of sublimity. But there is a certain
peevishness in her expression which adds a comfortable
smack of human nature to her classic features.]
Julia. I thought mamma would never go. I have been hiding in your
boudoir ever since I heard she was here.
Lady Dol. Was Cyril with you?
Julia. Oh, no; he has gone out for a walk.
Lady Dol. Tell me, dearest, have you and Cyril had any disagreement
lately? Is there any misunderstanding?
Julia. Oh, no. [Sighs.]
Lady Dol. I remember quite well that before I married Herbert he
often suffered from the oddest moods of depression. Several times
he entreated me to break off the engagement. His affection was so
reverential that he feared he was not worthy of me. I assure you I
had the greatest difficulty in overcoming his scruples, and persuading
him that whatever his faults were I could help him to subdue them.
Julia. But Cyril and I are not engaged. It is all so uncertain, so
humiliating.
Lady Dol. Men take these things for granted. If the truth were
known, I daresay he already regards you as his wife.
Julia. [With an inspired air.] Perhaps that is why he treats me so
unkindly. I have often thought that if he were my husband he could
not be more disagreeable! He has not a word for me when I speak to
him. He does not hear. Oh, Lady Doldrummond, I know what is the
matter. He is in love, but I am not the one. You are all wrong.
Lady Dol. No, no, no. He loves you; I am sure of it. Only be patient
with him and it will come all right. Hush! is that his step? Stay here,
darling, and I will go into my room and write letters. [Exit, brushing
the tears from her eyes.]
[Butler ushers in Mr. Mandeville. Neither of them perceive Julia, who
has gone to the window.]
Butler. His Lordship will be down in half an hour, sir. He is now having
his hair brushed.
Julia. [In surprise as she looks round.] Mr. Mandeville! [Pause.] I
hardly expected to meet you here.
Mandeville. And why, may I ask?
Julia. You know what Lady Doldrummond is. How did you overcome
her scruples?
Mandeville. Is my reputation then so very bad?
Julia. You—you are supposed to be rather dangerous. You sing on
the stage, and have a tenor voice.
Mandeville. Is that enough to make a man dangerous?
Julia. How can I tell? But mamma said you were invincible. You
admire mamma, of course. [Sighs.]
Mandeville. A charming woman, Mrs. de Trappe. A very interesting
woman; so sympathetic.
Julia. But she said she would not listen to you
.Mandeville. Did she say that? [A slight pause.] I hope you will not be
angry when I own that I do not especially admire your mother. A
quarter of a century ago she may have had considerable attractions,
but—are you offended?
Julia. Offended? Oh, no. Only it seems strange. I thought that all
men admired mamma. [Pause.] You have not told me yet how you
made Lady Doldrummond's acquaintance.
Mandeville. I am here at Lord Aprile's invitation. He has decided that
he feels no further need of Lady Doldrummond's apron-strings.
Julia. Oh, Mr. Mandeville, are you teaching him to be wicked?
Mandeville. But you will agree with me that a young man cannot
make his mother a kind of scribbling diary?
Julia. Still, if he spends his time well, there does not seem to be any
reason why he should refuse to say where he dines when he is not at
home.
Mandeville. Lady Doldrummond holds such peculiar ideas; she would
find immorality in a sofa-cushion. If she were to know that Cyril is
coming with me to the dress rehearsal of our new piece!
Julia. It would break her heart. And Lord Doldrummond would be
indignant. Mamma says his own morals are so excellent!
Mandeville. Is he an invalid?
Julia. Certainly not. Why do you ask?
Mandeville. Whenever I hear of a charming husband I always think
that he must be an invalid. But as for morals, there can be no harm
in taking Cyril to a dress rehearsal. If you do not wish him to go,
however, I can easily say that the manager does not care to have
strangers present. [Pause.] Afterwards there is to be a ball at Miss
Sparrow's.
Julia. Is Cyril going there, too?
Mandeville. I believe that he has an invitation, but I will persuade
him to refuse it, if you would prefer him to remain at home.
Julia. You are very kind, Mr. Mandeville, but it is a matter of
indifference to me where Lord Aprile goes.
Mandeville. Perhaps I ought not to have mentioned this to you?
Julia. [Annoyed.] It does not make the least difference. In fact, I am
delighted to think that you are taking Cyril out into the world. He is
wretched in this house. [With heroism.] I am glad to think that he
knows anyone so interesting and clever and beautiful as Sarah
Sparrow. I suppose she would be considered beautiful?
Mandeville. [With a profound glance.] One can forget her—
sometimes.
Julia. [Looking down.] Perhaps—when I am as old as she is—I shall
be prettier than I am at present.
Mandeville. You always said you liked my voice. We never see
anything of each other now. I once thought that—well—that you
might like me better. Are you sure you are not angry with me
because I am taking Cyril to this rehearsal?
Julia. Quite sure. Why should I care where Cyril goes? I only wish
that I, too, might go to the theatre to-night. What part do you play?
And what do you sing? A serenade?
Mandeville. [Astounded.] Yes. How on earth did you guess that? The
costume is, of course, picturesque, and that is the great thing in an
opera. A few men can sing—after a fashion—but to find the right
clothes to sing in—that shows the true artist.
Julia. And Sarah; does she look her part?
Mandeville. Well, I do not like to say anything against her, but she is
not quite the person I should cast for la Marquise de la Perdrigonde.
Ah! if you were on the stage, Miss de Trappe! You have just the
exquisite charm, the grace, the majesty of bearing which, in the
opinion of those who have never been to Court, is the peculiar
distinction of women accustomed to the highest society.
Julia. Oh, I should like to be an actress!
Mandeville. No! no! I spoke selfishly—if you only acted with me, it
would be different; but—but I could not bear to see another man
making love to you—another man holding your hand and singing into
your eyes—and—and——Oh, this is madness. You must not listen to
me.
Julia. I am not—angry, but—you must never again say things which
you do not mean. If I thought you were untruthful it would make me
so—so miserable. Always tell me the truth. [Holds out her hand.]
Mandeville. You are very beautiful!
[She drops her eyes, smiles, and wanders unconsciously to the
mirror.]
[Lady Doldrummond suddenly enters from the boudoir, and Cyril
from the middle door. Cyril is handsome, but his features have
that delicacy and his expression that pensiveness which
promise artistic longings and domestic disappointment.]
Cyril. [Cordially and in a state of suppressed excitement.] Oh,
mother, this is my friend Mandeville. You have heard me mention
him?
Lady Dol. I do not remember, but——
Cyril. When I promised to go out with you this afternoon, I forgot
that I had another engagement. Mandeville has been kind enough to
call for me.
Lady Dol. Another engagement, Cyril?
[Lord Doldrummond enters and comes down, anxiously looking from
one to the other.]
Cyril. Father, this is my friend Mandeville. We have arranged to go up
to town this afternoon.
Lady Dol. [Calmly.] What time shall I send the carriage to the station
for you? The last train usually arrives about——
Cyril. I shall not return to-night. I intend to stay in town. Mandeville
will put me up.
Lord Dol. And where are you going?
Mandeville. He is coming to our dress rehearsal of the “Dandy and
the Dancer.”
Cyril. At the Parnassus. [Lord and Lady Doldrummond exchange
horrified glances.] I daresay you have never heard of the place, but it
amuses me to go there, and I must learn life for myself. I am two-
and-twenty, and it is not extraordinary that I should wish to be my
own master. I intend to have chambers of my own in town.
Lady Dol. Surely you have every liberty in this house?
Lord Dol. If you leave us, you will leave the rooms in which your
mother has spent every hour of her life, since the day you were
born, planning and improving. Must all her care and thought go for
nothing? The silk hangings in your bedroom she worked with her
own hands. There is not so much as a pen-wiper in your quarter of
the house which she did not choose with the idea of giving you one
more token of her affection.
Cyril. I am not ungrateful, but I cannot see much of the world
through my mother's embroidery. As you say, I have every comfort
here. I may gorge at your expense and snore on your pillows and
bully your servants. I can do everything, in fact, but live. Dear
mother, be reasonable. [Tries to kiss her. She remains quite frigid.]
[Footman enters.]
Footman. The dog-cart is at the door, my lord.
Cyril. You think it well over and you will see that I am perfectly right.
Come on, Mandeville, we shall miss the train. Make haste: there is no
time to be polite. [He goes out, dragging Mandeville after him, and
ignoring Julia.]
Lord Dol. Was that my son? I am ashamed of him! To desert us in
this rude, insolent, heartless manner. If I had whipped him more and
loved him less, he would not have been leaving me to lodge with a
God knows who. I disown him! The fool!
Lady Dol. If you have anything to say, blame me! Cyril has the
noblest heart in the world; I am the fool.

Curtain.
 Transcriber's Notes:

Scroll the mouse over words in Greek and the

transliteration will appear.
Punctuation was standardized. Words in dialect,
obsolete or alternative spellings were not changed.
The following were corrected:
missing 'f' added to of
allution to allusion
needed to heeded
undiscouragable to
undiscourageable
snggest to suggest
gasp to grasp
deing to being
geos to goes
Gardi to Guardi
waning to waving
allign to align
poem to poet
requiees to requires
upsettting to upsetting
missing 'l' added to small
Illustration Transcriptions:
Cover: The Yellow Book
An Illustrated Quarterly
Volume I April 1894
London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane
[The following text was cropped out of the
illustration:
Boston: Copeland & Day
Price 5/-]
Inner Cover: The Yellow Book
An Illustrated Quarterly
Volume I April 1894
London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane
Boston: Copeland & Day
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YELLOW
BOOK, AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY. VOL. 1, APRIL 1894 ***

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