BOOKS-ON-DISK MAKE LIBRARY MODERN INDEED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 5, 1993                   TAG: 9301050114
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 6   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: By LISA McANANY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium
BOOKS-ON-DISK MAKE LIBRARY MODERN INDEED
Random House is making the Modern Library truly modern.
In conjunction with the Voyager Company, the publisher is offering the Modern Library on 3.5-inch computer disks for use with Apple Powerbooks and other Macintosh computers.
The disk versions are strangely faithful renderings of the Modern Library books.
When a book file is opened, an image of the book's cover appears on the screen. The screens look like pages, complete with page numbers.
But books on disk have a number of features that were not available to readers of the original Modern Library.
The glow of the computer screen makes a reading lamp unnecessary. "It's marvelous. You can read in bed at night without disturbing your partner," Random House President Harold Evans points out.
Readers can give their tired eyes a break by switching to a larger type size.
A computer disk weighs far less than a hardback book; so people who travel with their portable computers can now bring along a month's worth of reading in a coat pocket.
The Modern Library on disk may be most appealing to students, however. Readers can make notes in the margin and put electronic "paper clips" on pages they want to mark. The click of a key makes these markings disappear until the next time a reader wants to see them.
The Modern Library on disk also has a search function that provides an immediate index of any word or character name in the book.
Other features of the books-on-disk seem out of synch with the literary tone of the books.
Voyager's "Moby Dick" is slated to include whale illustrations and sound effects - a dubious addition to Melville's classic.
The books-on-disk project was the brainchild of Christopher Cerf, son of Random House founder Bennett Cerf.
Cerf says his father "would be thrilled" about the computerized books. "New media never scared him," he adds. "He was an early proponent of television and never believed that it would ruin publishing."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB