The Changing World of E-books

The whole chain of e-book publishing is changing as the distinction between author, publisher, reader or user and library are being hazy. In this context there are many issues that need to be addressed, developments that are admirable and emerging trends that need to be understood. These include tracing the development from print to e-book; various publishing models for ebooks; various distribution models for e-books, emerging and genuine document formats and file formats used in e-book; new file sharing technologies; authoring and reading e-book; policies and legislation; fighting with piracy and concept of fair use; e-book business models; growth and impact of the e-book market in both developed and developing countries and the latest e-book trends and future technologies. In addition to this changed context, librarians are facing several other challenges in providing information, which are discussed in this paper.