The print book was five centuries and a half old. Gutenberg printed its Bible in 1454 in Mainz, Germany, perhaps printing 180 copies, with 48 copies still available in 2000, and two full copies at the British Library. As they were a little different, both were digitized in March 2000 by Japanese experts from Keio University of Tokyo and NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Communications). The images were then processed to offer a full digitized version on the web a few months later, for the world to enjoy.
# The ebook in late 2000
In late 2000, thousands of public domain works were freely available on the web in digital libraries.
A number of bookstores and publishers had their own websites. Some of them were born online, with all their transactions made through the internet.
Alongside their traditional tasks of lending books or other documents, and offering a collection of reference works, librarians helped their patrons to navigate the web without being drowned, organized a selection of websites for them, and created their own websites with an online catalog and a digital library.
More and more books and periodicals were “only” digital, skipping the cost of a print version. From “static” in print books, information become “fluid” on the internet, and regularly updated.
Many authors were using the internet to seek information, disseminate their work, exchange with their readers and collaborate with other creators.
Some authors began searching how using hyperlinks could expand their writing towards new directions, creating hypermedia novels and sites of hyperfiction, while mixing text, image and sound.
Academic and scientific publishers began to reorganize their work and favor online publishing, with prints versions only on demand. Some universities made their own textbooks with a selection of chapters and articles from a database, as well as comments from professors.
The internet became mandatory to find information, communicate, access documents, and broaden our knowledge. People no longer needed to run after information. Information was there, by the numbers, available on our screen, often at no cost, including for those who studied in a remote place, lived in the countryside, worked at home or were stuck in a bed.