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of Contents CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media WGBH
Educational Foundation 125 Western Ave. Boston, MA 02134
According to a survey published in late 2003 by the Open eBook
Forum (http://www.openebook.org), sales of electronic books, or
e-books, are steadily increasing. Trade, textbook and periodical
publishers alike are developing e-books that can be accessed,
downloaded and displayed using browser plug-ins, stand-alone
software and hardware devices. Many e-book formats offer
features such as audio playback, built-in dictionaries, easy-to-
read type, highlighting, note-taking, bookmarking, text searches
and direct Internet connections. All these features offer
considerable learning resources for users, sophisticated tools
for educators and an entirely new development and distribution
model for publishers, particularly in the educational market.
Most e-book titles can be read on desktop or laptop computers
running Windows or the Macintosh