Hebrew Scriptures and More . . . .

David Instone-Brewer at Tyndale Tech discusses the use of digital books and “The Future of the Book.” He divides his post into four topics:

1. Handheld devices are good, but not good enough – yet;

2. Google has the legal go-ahead to scan everything – almost;

3. Copyright law gives power to paper – for now;

4. How to read books online – now.

Instone-Brewer’s comments are generally helpful, however I would differ on some of his statements and would suggest more sources for consideration:

1. Amazon’s Kindle for example claims to offer 190,000 books already (on the initial release date they claimed 88,000, see Amazon Kindle) with some sites are listing free books converted from free online sites. See Free Kindle Books, Amazon Kindle Book Sites. See also my post The Beginnings of a Revolution?

3. The issue of orphaned books needs to be delved in further. See Orphan Works; U.S Copyright Renewal Records Available for Download – Inside Google Books Search; Search Copyright information at U.S. Copyright Office.

4. Sites with online books are numerous. I will try to post more on this in future, but for now the following lists may be a little dated but helpful: Hebrew Scriptures and More > Links > General > Online Book Collections – General and Online Book Collections – Biblical, ANE, Christian and Judaic Works. The availability of dissertations is another issue that should be taken up. See my simple list at Hebrew Scriptures and More > Links > General > Theses & Dissertations.

5. I highly recommend the online versions of Siemens, Ray and Susan Schreibman, A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, (Blackwell, 2008), online edition.

HT: Dr. Jim West, “The Future of the Book.”

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