In the field of electronic publishing, information and communication technologies are often employed to just streamline the production process, while there is a lack of approaches aiming at innovative information services. The term "electronic book" marks an approach for such new presentation and reception forms.

The objectives, issues, and priorities of the project have been modified during the project work and in the light of new findings.

However, three key questions persisted:

1. How should the contents be re-edited and structured for electronic books?
2. How can the presentation qualities of conventional books be enriched, preserved, and losses kept to a minimum in the electronic book?
3. What new qualities of use can the electronic book provide compared to the conventional book?

Research 1989-1991

Survey of readers of a research report

In September 1989, we conducted a survey of 120 people who had received the Third Interim Report "end-user and full text databases" from the previous project PEP. 83 questionnaires were returned and analyzed. The questionnaire asked about the intensity and selectivity when reading the report, and about aids (e. g. index, content page, glossary, etc.) used or desired by the readers.

Not surprisingly, the individual sections and chapters of the report were read very selectively (lowest frequency of reading of a section of 19 %, most frequently 52 %). Few readers (5 %) read the whole report, while 61% read just one-fourth or less of the report. It was surprising, however, that groups of readers with special interests (e. g. physicians or lawyers) were not highly selective in their reading strategies compared to other readers. Consequently it would not make much sense to offer reader group-specific "reading paths". With respect to the organizing paratexts of the report, the contents page was used by 82 % and the summaries of the sections of the report by 52 % to 72 % of the readers. In contrast, footnotes (22 % of respondents), figures (18 %) and cross-references (17 %) were not heavily used.

Evaluation of hypertext

Since the hypertext boom in the late 80s, more and more hypertext applications come onto the market. The contributions of the ACM Hypertext conference in 1987 in the United States and the ones of a hypertext conference in the UK in 1988 were documented not only as printed proceedings but also as hypertext systems. On behalf of our project, Frieder Nake (University of Bremen) and his team carried out a software-ergonomic evaluation of these applications. What is the real benefit and advantage of such electronic proceedings?

In the experiment students of computer science were confronted with a number of tasks (questions) regarding the contents of the conference proceedings. The processing of tasks when using the hypertext was observed. As a result of this comprehensive analysis it can be stated that the present hypertexts were little suited for this type of publication, i. e for a collection of essays or conference proceedings. There were certain advantages with regard to targeted access, but more significant were the drawbacks related to the reading of texts on a screen. To increase the practical value of such electronic hypertexts, significantly more effort would have to be made regarding the adequate presentation of the contents and the provision of adequate reading aids.

While the evaluation of conference proceedings as hypertext was about purely text-oriented documents, in a further evaluation commissioned by the project group typical hypermedia applications were analyzed. These were inter alia (1) "The Election of 1912", a hypertext information system for the presidential election campaign in the U.S. in 1912 with an integrated simulation game (software Hypergate), (2) an interpretation of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven attached directly to the music. The retrievable information was directly linked to the sound of the music ("CD Companion - Beethoven Symphony No. 9.", software HyperCard), or (3) the "Guinness Disc of Records" (on CD-ROM with the software HyperCard), a multi-media, electronic edition of the famous "Guinness Book of Records".

This research was carried out by M. Klein-Magar. Criteria of evaluation were inter alia the comparison with similar printed publications, the adaptation to a concept of use, and general usability and design criteria. Many shortcomings of the systems studied could be identified.

Prototype development

The aim of the prototype development of "electronic books" was to gain experience with the transformation of different text types into hypertexts using existing commercial hypertext software for the implementation. It was clear to us that hypertexts are only of use in real world settings if the texts are worth it and if they are prepared in a way so that the advantages of the new media come to the fore. A "beautiful" computer interface may indeed be impressive at first glance, but what eventually matters has to be proven in realistic conditions and situations of serious use. This approach implies to concentrate the efforts made onthe functional design and screen design of each prototype, and also on adequately safeguarding and on rearranging the contents of existing texts when transforming them into hypertexts.

In the various stages of the prototype development external experts were involved (typography, screen design, programming, content expertise).

Partners and contractors of the project

Software-ergonomic expertise:

Prof. Dr. F. Nake, D. Heinze and W. Oeltjen, University of Bremen

M. Klein-Magar, Saarland University, Saarbrücken

Software development of prototype 1 "electronic book"

J. Behling, Wissenschaftliche und technische Fachkommunikation, Trier OWL Inc., Edinburgh

Works on the prototype 2 "multimedia Studiersystem"

Prof. K. Bessau, Fachhochschule für Gestaltung Mannheim (visual design)
Ch. Haetwig, University of Konstanz (programming)
F. Krueger, University of Saarland, Saarbrücken (programming)
R. Scheuchenpflug, University of Regensburg (programming and evaluation)
Fidelitas team, Karlsruhe (programming)
Dr. U. Köhler, University of Mannheim (content and editorial work)
G. Frederichs, FZK, ITAS (content and editorial work)
M. Rader, FZK, ITAS (content and editorial work)