Searching for the "Electronic Book" a.k.a. the e-Book

Throughout this class, the topic of e-books has occurred a few times, so I decide to research when the term e-book was first used. Although I quickly discovered that upon searching the term “e-book”, I quickly was flooded with articles that were not relevant to my search. Some of these articles often dated back to 1850s, most likely because they search engine focused more so on the term book. So I refined my search to be more specific, and I began searching with the term “electronic book”.

Earliest Journalistic use:

New York Times: This article describes a new piece of technology, called the Discman, that Sony was developing, which would allow users to read electronic books. It appears this was to be a successor to the Walkman.

By DAVID E SANGER Special to The New,York Times. "Sony's Newest Portable is an ElectronicBook." New York Times (1923-Current file): 1. Jan 29 1990. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

Chicago Tribune: This article describes how there was a recommendation to replace the traditional stock certificate with a “universal system of electron book entry”(Scott).

"Stock Study Bearish on Certificates." Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file): 1. Nov 29 1989. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

Los Angeles Times: Toffler describes that the electronic book is a new technology that will reshape the future. An interesting point is that he also refers to the electronic book as the techno-book.

CONNIE KOENENN Times, Staff W. "Toffler on Techno-Books." Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File): 2. Feb 20 1989.ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 .

Scholarly Article Databases:

ProQuest: 

Smith, John L. "Vault Conversion: Transferring Securities Involves Careful Planning." Trusts & Estates 120.2 (1981): 13.ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

Project MUSE:

Michael Joyce. "Notes Toward an Unwritten Non-Linear Electronic Text, "The Ends ofPrint Culture" (a work in progress)." Postmodern Culture 2.1 (1991). Project MUSE. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

JStor:

The Electronic Reader

Paul Starr

Daedalus , Vol. 112, No. 1, Reading: Old and New (Winter, 1983), pp. 143-156

Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024840

Almost all of these articles address how the electronic book, as a technology, will revolutionize how print media will be read. In many of these articles, the authors do not that e-books will not completely destroy the market for print books, especially in the academic field. Although, an interesting note is that in the article from the Chicago Tribune and the other article by John L. Smith both talk about electronic books as a way to store and reference financial information, and more importantly a way to keep the information organized and accessible to all. Overall, the meaning and use of electronic book has not changed much since its creation. The only change that has really occurred is the shortening of its name to e-book.

On a side not, other terms for electronic book I would often find include: electronic reader, electronic text, techno-book and even one article that described electronic books as a computer software for reading.