电子书-纸质书借阅时代的终结者?

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。