In the ongoing theme of digital vs physical, Wired has an article called “Who Can Dig Digital Books?” For the next five years, University of Pennsylvania Library will make all the history works produced by Oxford University Press available electronically. They hope to find out how digital texts are used, whether they take the place of or supplement books. As you know, five years is a lot in Internet time, and I wonder how vast the evolution could be over five years. One breakthrough in affordable, highly readable screens could cause a revolution. Of course the evolving use of books with the availability of electronic text may be a slow transition, and I assume the study will be designed to record the evolution, not just figure out how to deal with it. The study has a limited range of books, and it may not be able to reflect what could happen if electronic books catch on for the mass market. But I suppose readers will find less benefit in dynamically searching Danielle Steele than a more scholarly title. Then again, some people may like skipping forward to the good parts of fluff novels. Someone could write a search algorithm for the effective perusal of romance novels (you know what I mean).