This talk will answer the question: "How does my company build ebooks that will still work in two years, or five, or ten?" Taking a pragmatic approach based on real-world examples of ebooks that did not last, with a dash of the theoretical that considers how web archiving work might apply to ebooks, Teresa will cover workflows, common issues that prevent ebooks from being sold, standards compliance, link rot, accessibility, and more. She will also look at how web communities are talking about digital archiving and how this might apply to ebooks.
March 19, 2019
ebookcraft.booknetcanada.ca
#Ebookcraft
19. Fixed-layout ebooks do not last
◎Don’t make fixed-layout ebooks.
◎Or, accept that fixed-layout ebooks are
temporary.
◎Or, at least don’t make fixed-layout ebooks
when reflowable will work.
19
52. website guideline ...
● Follow web standards and accessibility
guidelines.
● Be careful with robots.txt exclusions.
● Use a site map, transparent links, and
contiguous navigation.
● Maintain stable URIs and redirect when
necessary.
● Consider using a Creative Commons
license.
● Use sustainable data formats.
● Embed metadata, especially the
character encoding.
● Use archiving-friendly platform
providers and content management
systems.
... ebook equivalent
● Follow web standards and accessibility
guidelines.
● Be careful with DRM.
● Use a full epub navigation document
that includes all parts of the epub.
● Link to archived versions of web pages
or otherwise combat link rot.
● Consider permanent ownership models
rather than licensing.
● Don’t use proprietary ebook standards.
● Embed metadata, especially ... well,
everything.
● Get your ebooks into archiving-friendly
platforms, libraries, collections, and
content management systems.
52
53. “[E]Book technologies ... are creating
pressures on memory institutions to
handle complex new content, with
multiple technical and legal
complications, at very large
scales, well in advance of any
stabilization of standards for
formats, for workflows, for tools,
or for best practices in contracting
with producers of this content.”
53
https://www.dpconline.org/docs/technology-watch-reports/1230-dpctw14-01/file
54. Other considerations for
digital archives
◎ Data or art?
◎ Necessity of context
◎ Stability of access
◎ Stability of content — “intellectual status” of
ebooks
◎ Technical infrastructure
54