电子书-纸质书借阅时代的终结者?

Host: Entertainment is going digital. Music 2)succumbed first and fastest. Movies are now 3)rippable and downloadable to watch anytime, anywhere. And, after much 4)resistance, the 5)stubborn paper book is finally beginning to give itself over to the digital revolution. Last year 5% of the books bought in the US and UK were digital ones, a combination of audio books and e-books. Now that’s obviously small, but it is growing. Now libraries are beginning to offer so-called e-lending, something which started in the US and has made its way across the Atlantic. Now around a quarter of British libraries offer digital book 6)loans.

主持人：娱乐业正走向电子化。音乐是最先也是最快屈服的。如今电影可以在任何时间任何地点被拷贝和下载来看。而顽固的纸质图书，在作了长期的反抗之后，终于开始改变自己，参与到了电子图书的革命中来。去年，美国和英国售出的图书当中，有百分之五是电子书，包括有声书和电子阅读器。目前看来它显然只占很小的份额，但是却在增长中。现在，图书馆开始推出所谓的电子借阅方式，这种方式起源于美国，并且向大西洋沿岸国家席卷而来。如今英国有大约四分之一的图书馆提供电子书的借阅服务。

Fiona Marriott (Luton Library): We’ve noticed that, with e-books, we’re getting a new kind of customer in: people who felt that they were too busy to use the library before, or, for example, people who commuted into London every day who were too busy to come in in the evening or too tired, and I have at least two blind customers who are downloading their own audio books now. And they say that’s given them freedom, so that they can actually make their own choice without having to come to the library with a guide.

菲奥纳·马里奥特（卢顿图书馆）：我们注意到，有了电子书后，我们获得了一个新的用户群：以前总感觉太忙而没法使用图书馆的人们，或者比如说，曾经每天通勤于伦敦市，忙到晚上不能来图书馆又或者太疲惫的人们。而我至少有两位失明的用户现在正在下载他们自己的有声书。他们说这种方式给了他们自由，因此他们可以实实在在地做他们自己的决定而不必非得和向导一起来图书馆。

Host: Overdrive is the digital book 8)distributor used by 13,000 libraries worldwide. You can log on to your library through a web browser or using the 9)Smartphone 10)App, and then browse an on-line collection of books. When you see something you like, just click to download it. E-lending means your library is open 11)24/7. No money is spent on staff to issue books or return them to shelves, there are no damaged or lost copies, and there are no late returns.

主持人：Overdrive是全球一万三千座图书馆使用的电子阅读器经销商。你可以通过网络浏览器或者使用智能手机应用程序登录你的图书馆，然后浏览在线藏书。当你看到你喜欢的书时，只要点击下载就行了。电子借阅方式意味着你的图书馆是全年无休的。不用雇佣人员来发放书籍或者将其放回书架，不会有书籍损坏或者丢失，也不会有迟还的现象发生。

But surely there’s a bit of a logic problem with libraries loaning e-books. After all, if you want an e-book, you don’t physically have to go anywhere to get it. And you’re also not limited by how much stock there is. There’s always an 12)infinite number of copies of any text that you want to download. And that sounds much more convenient than having to pop down to your local library only to find that the one copy of the book they have is already out.

不过图书馆借出电子书的服务无疑还存在一点逻辑问题。毕竟如果你是想要一本电子书的话，你不用亲自去某个地方获取。你也不用受限于该书的库存量，你想要下载的任何内容都总会有无穷本在那里。比起你非得去一趟当地图书馆却发现他们所拥有的唯一一本已经借出去了，这种方式听起来要便利很多。

The first point doesn’t help the argument of those hoping to keep libraries open in this time of government spending cuts. If libraries did all their lending over the web, well, you wouldn’t need a physical library at all. And the second point about limitless copies for loan could mean that no one would ever need to actually buy a book at all. And that’s, understandably, worrying the book publishers.

在这个政府削减支出的时候，第一点（采用电子借阅方式）对那些希望让图书馆保持开放的人的观点毫无益处。如果图书馆全部采用网上借阅方式，那么，你将根本不需要一个实体图书馆。而第二点，关于不限制借出书的本数可能意味着没有人会真的去买一本书。那么理所当然地，这是让图书出版者们担忧的问题。

Richard Mollet (Publisher’s Association UK): This relationship between publishing and libraries is historic, over a hundred years old, and we want it to continue into the e-book future. But we have to ensure that we 13)replicate, as closely as we can, the success of the physical lending model, which is that there’s one book, there’s one user, there’s one time, and in that way you ensure that the lending model doesn’t start to impact upon the retail model.

理查德·莫雷特（英国出版者协会）：这种出版业和图书馆之间的关系是历史性的，有一百年多年之久，而我们想要这种关系持续到未来的电子书时代。但是我们必须确保我们尽可能精密地模拟实体借阅模式的成功方式，那就是一位用户在一个时间内借一本书，那样你才可以确保这种借阅模式不会影响到零售模式。

Host: Overdrive attempts to 14)allay those concerns. A local library chooses how many digital copies to purchase and that limits the number of users who can borrow the e-book at one time. When the loan period is up, the book will 15)expire automatically and return itself to the e-library for other 16)patrons to enjoy.

主持人：Overdrive一直试图消除这些担心。一座本地图书馆决定了多少本电子版是需要购买的，这就限制了本来曾经可以通过电子借阅方式阅读该书的用户数量。当借书期限一到，此书将自动终止借阅服务，并自动还回电子图书馆以供其他用户借阅。

Some libraries use this system: “public library on line”. Here, all reading is done through a web browser; no book is downloaded. You don’t need to worry about the availability of a title either. All books can be accessed by many users at one time. The downside is, if your internet connection disappears, so does your book. Also, reading books on a web browser isn’t easy on the eyes, and most e-readers don’t come with a browser. This is essentially an attempt to tempt the reader into buying the physical book.

一些图书馆采用“在线公共图书馆”这种系统，在这里，所有的阅读都通过网络浏览器来完成，没有书是下载来看的。你也不用担心书目的可用性，所有书都可以被多名用户同时读到。（这种方式的）缺点是，如果你的网络连接不见了，（你要看的）书也就不见了。还有，在网络浏览器上阅读很费眼，而大多数电子阅读器又不会同时提供一个浏览器，这从根本上就吸引了读者去购买纸质书。

But the Publishing Association goes one step further still, suggesting that library customers should have to physically visit the library to download an e-book.

但是出版者协会还是超前一步，建议图书馆用户应该亲自去图书馆下载一本电子书。

Richard: There need be no difference between doing that in the physical world, where you walk out with a physical book under your arm, or in the digital world where you walk out with an e-reader under your arm, which has a book you just downloaded. So, to my mind, if we can at least get that right, get that duplication right, that’s the first step.

理查德：无论是你在现实社会中在胳膊底下夹本书走出去，或是在电子世界里，胳膊底下放个存有你刚下载的书的电子阅读器走出去，都没有什么不同。所以，依我之见，如果我们能够至少获得那种权利，获得那种复制权，那就迈出了第一步。

Host: But even then, not all are convinced. At the start of the year, one of the biggest publishers in the world, McMillan Publishing US, declared it had no interest in being on libraries’ 17)virtual shelves.

主持人：但是尽管那样，也不是所有人都信服此观点。今年年初，世界上最大的出版商之一——美国麦克米兰出版公司，宣布其对登上图书馆的虚拟书架毫无兴趣。

Some libraries are sticking to physical books but with a digital twist. Members of the New York Public Library can reserve a book through its website or, alternatively, click through to buy it from an on-line retailer, and the library gets a cut. Of course this doesn’t help the smaller libraries to remain open in times of huge budget cuts. And if more libraries do end up closing, this could be the way we borrow physical books in the future.

一些图书馆一直坚持要用纸质书，不过可以捆绑数码产品。纽约公共图书馆的会员可以通过其网站收藏一本书，或者只有点击进入网站从在线零售商那里购买此书，而图书馆可以从中提成。当然这并不能帮助小型图书馆在巨额预算被削减的时期保持开放，而且如果更多的图书馆真能因此改变闭馆的命运，这将是我们今后借阅纸质书的一种方法。