American Library Association | By Bill Kasdorf, VP & Principal Consultant, Apex CoVantage
This case study was included in The Critical Component: Standards in the Information Exchange Environment, ed. Todd Carpenter, published by the American Library Association, 2015, available for purchase on ALAStore.org.
Most standards are invisible to those who benefit from them; and, usually, this is a good thing. We don’t normally worry about the spacing of the steps in a staircase. We notice, in a very old one, when the spacing is not what we expect, but even then not one person out of a thousand will realize that we have a standard to thank for the fact that we rarely stumble, we just step. We’re conscious of the need for standards to accommodate those to whom steps are a barrier—ramps for accessibility have become commonplace—but we’re oblivious to the standards for the steps themselves.
EPUB, the standard single-file format for e-books and other digital publications, has, in contrast, provided a highly visible, very public opportunity for people to witness the creation, implementation, and evolution of a standard that has come to touch the majority of the literate public. E-books are everywhere today; some books from major publishers sell as many copies of the title as e-books as they do in all other formats combined. Only a few years ago such e-books were a pipe dream.