The question of the future of books in their usual, paper form has been discussed since the emergence of electronic libraries not only by people for whom the book serves as a source of information or aesthetic pleasure, but also by representatives of the publishing business. There is a widespread point of view that both the e-book and its paper predecessor have a future.
With the development of computer technology, the question of the future of the book in its traditional version became more and more urgent. At first, when the users of digital libraries found themselves tied to the monitors of stationary computers for the time of reading, the advantage of books translated into digital format was their relative accessibility and the convenience of finding the necessary information. In this respect, the opinion of the Director General of the FEB "Russian Literature and Folklore" is indicative. From the point of view of K. V. Vigursky, electronic editions save the time of readers working with texts, allowing quick searches and exact copying of certain fragments.
With the advent of mobile devices that can reproduce the formats used to preserve digital books, the benefits of this kind of publication have become apparent to those who enjoy reading at their leisure. The idea that a paper-based library can be loaded into the memory of a handheld device and always at hand seems quite attractive. The publishing business started talking about the revolutionary changes awaiting the book market. In particular, this was discussed at the forum held in early May 2012 as part of the Warsaw Book Fair.
According to a number of publishers, expressed at the forum, an e-book is a natural form of development of a paper book. It is likely that at first, digital literature will imitate paper editions, since this form has become commonplace since the invention of the printing press. As one of the forum participants noted, a similar situation developed at the dawn of the automotive industry. The first cars resembled a carriage without a horse, since their creators could not imagine any other vehicle. Perhaps, in the future, e-books will receive additional features that distinguish them from their paper predecessors.
Nevertheless, e-books are unlikely to completely replace traditional publications. Theater did not disappear with the advent of cinema, and television, by the fact of its existence, did not abolish cinema. Despite the decline recorded by statistics, in particular, in the Russian book publishing industry, a certain segment of this market is considered successful. This situation is noted in publishing houses specializing in illustrated children's literature and collection books. A collection prepared by one of these publishers was presented at the Moscow International Book Fair, which opened on September 5, 2012. The collection of reprinted rarities, printed in seven sets, has the general name "Russia, Napoleon and 1812".
