The ability to highlight or underline items, to add notes in margins, to bookmark pages and to otherwise personalize books and documents is essential, whether the content is printed on paper or displayed on screens. Four companies have already announced their intention to begin marketing e-book reading devices and distribution services by the end of 1998, and several other companies are rumored to be on the verge of announcing products. No doubt some of these companies will fail, but the concept of digital publishing is now a reality poised to spread rapidly throughout the world in the next few decades. Just as Johannes Gutenberg and other early printers struggled to develop the right technologies during the incunabula of mechanical printing in the 15th century, we can be certain that entrepreneurs and innovators in this incunabula of digital publishing will develop the right technologies for e-books and periodicals. Kent State University Permission is granted for non-profit educational uses.
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