Digital Libraries, and the Ecstasy and Agony of Search

As I embark on a large reading project myself, I greatly enjoyed this article by Tim Challies on swapping out a physical library for a completely digital one. Tim makes a good case both for and against going completely digital; but what I really enjoyed was his theory on why those who have a major distaste for ebooks often seem so rooted in the past:

We tend to want the new medium to mimic the old one and judge the new in light of the old. What we fail to account for are the ways in which the new is superior, in which the new is something entirely new. When cars were first invented, people called them “horseless carriages” and judged them in light of the horse and carriage. But over time they proved their superiority and we forgot all about that older technology. We stopped thinking about the new technology in reference to the old. I think the relationship of book to ebook will eventually prove similar.

There are many problems with the state of ebooks (namely a lack of care in layout and typesetting, a huge disparity between book clients, and DRM causing undesirable lock-in) but the benefits of reading on a screen versus the page are massive. We can only expect that over time (and as authors put a real focus on the digital versions of their publications) the experience will become exponentially better.

Logos, makers of Challies’ preferred bible software and proprietors of their own ebook platform, themselves responded with a brilliant post about the the power of books made available at your fingertips. The piece, written by Mark Ward of Logos Pro, gives an in-depth example of how searching inside of your books is an important feature that is yet to be fully solved. Here’s that example, presented in full:

The other day I was desperately searching for a particular sentence in my Kindle version of Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching; I was preparing an article relying on his careful criticism of Be-Like Messages. My memory told me that he had said something like “The Bible does its best to tar the reputation of even the most saintly characters.”

So I searched the book in my Kindle app for the words “Bible does its best.” I got nothing.

I searched for “tar.” I got everything: “commen tar ies,” “targets,” s tar t,” “mus tar d,” “Uni tar ian,” “al tar ,” “soli tar y,” “s taring,” “secre tar ial,” “mili tary.” If I had had the patience to look through all 93 search results, I would have seen that hit 77 was “tarnish”:

“A difficulty with much biographical preaching, however, is that it typically fails to honor the care that the Bible also takes to tarnish almost every patriarch or saint within its pages.”

I had misremembered the quote.

It’s a pretty simple but very significant difference, but when I search for “tar” in my Logos copy of Chapell’s book, I get one hit. It’s not the quote I was looking for, but at least I know that immediately rather than having to wade through so many false positives. If I use some of Logos’ simple but powerful search capabilities and add an asterisk (“tar”), I quickly find “tarnish” and the quote I want. Logos provides an extensive suite of search tools and relies on a system of custom hand-tagging that allow you to find what you need. The Kindle ecosystem provides two methods of accessing the information in your library: the library home page and search. But as you noted, organizing your library is cumbersome, and as I’ve suggested, searching books is difficult, too. These weaknesses are actually okay if all you want to do is read a book once and never touch it again. But I need my books; I use my books. I find myself frequently frustrated and/or giving up while searching my Kindle resources. (And don’t forget that you can search only one book at a time. I’m forever forgetting which C.S. Lewis essay collection some particular great line was in.)

I go to the trouble of sharing these details because I have to imagine my experience is similar to that of others who don’t just read their books but continue to rely on them long after moving a given book on from “Currently Reading” to “Read” on Goodreads. It’s in the nitty gritty of daily use that an ebook ecosystem distinguishes itself from competitors.

My number one personal hope for the future of the Kindle platform is that search gets better, which is saying something as it undoubtably has the best search function of any major platform. It’s great to see companies like Logos striving to create a future-proof product that helps people both read and reference, for years to come. Here’s hoping that Amazon will do the same.

(This article originally published in two pieces, on Extratextuals)