Through app, physical books become more like e-books

For an industry that is currently undergoing a shift from analog to digital products, it’s no surprise that we’ve seen innovations that merge the two – such as Poland’s Elektrobiblioteka. Now the Booke app is a companion for readers of physical books, offering digital search, copying and note-taking facilities. While e-readers come with the convenience and features connected with digital media, there is still a large demand for physical books and the tactile experience they offer. The team behind Booke take advantage of a large database of fiction and non-fiction titles, which have already been transferred to a digital format. When users are reading a physical book, they can take a picture of the front or type in the ISBN code into the app. Users can then either type or speak commands, such as searches for key terms, copying and saving specific paragraphs or sentences for later and make comments and notes on particular pages. Readers can also share their activity with friends, allowing others to read a book with their own personalized footnotes.