,000 novels. The EB uses a hidden modem to dial into the
Everybook Store, where it is possible to browse, purchase, and receive entire
publications, including cover art. Books, magazines, menus, sheet music all
appear as they would in their printed form.

Softbook Press is creating SoftBook(R), along with the SoftBook Network(tm), an
Internet-based content delivery service, which provided a completely paperless
reading system. Professionals and students can easily, quickly and securely
download a wide selection of corporate documents, books, and periodicals using
its built-in Internet connection. Unlike a computer, the SoftBook is
ergonomically designed for reading long documents and books. Its publishing
partners are Random House and Simon & Schuster.

Librius is a full-service, e-commerce company. It delivers digital copies of
books to consumers via the Internet from its World Bookstore. The digital books
are stored and read by the consumer in a small, low-cost reading device, called
the Millennium EBook. Librius customers can obtain everything that they need to
become "digital readers" directly from the Librius Web site, including EBook
devices, thousands of book titles, and full customer support.

Digital books will not replace books, at least not in the very near future. They
will be a new support for publishers to deliver the books through the Internet
and for readers to store many texts in one digital support to be taken with
everywhere.

In our technological society, some people are attached to books whatever
happens, like Robert Downs who wrote in Books in My Life: "My lifelong love
affair with books and reading continues unaffected by automation, computers, and
all other forms of the twentieth-century gadgetry."

For some other people, being convinced about how much can be brought by
electronic texts doesn't prevent them from loving books. In an article published
in the Swiss magazine Informatique-Informations of February 1996, Pierre
Perroud, founder of the digital library Athena, explained that "electronic texts
represent an encouragement to reading and a convivial participation to culture
dissemination", particularly for textual research and text study. These texts
are "a good complement to the paper book, which remains irreplaceable when what
we are talking about is reading".

Pierre Perroud is convinced of the necessity to be kept closely informed of the
technological developments to adapt print media