December 1, 1994: Vol26n12: ELECTRONIC HIGHWAYS:  Books and Lobsters, Too

In the mood to linger in a bookstore without battling the holiday crowds? The Online Bookstore (OBS) is a electronic storefront in cyberspace that actually inspires browsing and then makes it easy to make a purchase electronically by credit card, phone or fax. Many of their books are shipped as conventional hardcover and paperbound books while others can be transmitted electronically to your computer.
	Like a more traditional bookstore the management posts the weekly New York Times Bestseller list complete with ordering information. Yet it also makes available electronic books such as Floyd Kemske's as yet untitled vampire/business novel to be published in September 1995, which interested members of the Internet community are editing as a group publication project.
	Established publishers such as Henry Holt & Company and Globe Pequot use the OBS to make their Internet debut. For example, Henry Holt offers an American Book Award winner Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe complete with free Internet serial releases, Maze (an interactive puzzle book), and the Mosaic User's Guide.
	Many of the books on the OBS shelves have sample chapters that you are free to print or download. The 1995 National Job Hotline Directory offers its "California Job Hotline Directory Listing." Richard Dooling offers the entire first chapter of his latest novel White Man's Grave. And the New Riders' Official Internet Yellow Pages presents the text of a "Whimsical Tour of the Internet." Some works such as McGraw-Hill's Paperless Publishing have their entire text available for browsing on your computer screen.
	Finally, who can resist visiting a bookstore in cyberspace that sells books, disks, files -- even lobsters online? Yes, lobsters. And as The Online Bookstore reminds its customers, the crustaceans they sell and ship in high tech boxes filled with seaweed are "real, not virtual lobsters, so immediate eating is recommended!"
	To visit the The Online Bookstore type gopher marketplace.com at your UB E-mail system prompt and then select "Online Bookstore." For assistance you can contact the OBS by phone (508-546-7346), fax (508-546-9807) or E-mail <OBS@marketplace.com>.
 -- Gemma DeVinney and Loss Pequeo Glazier, Lockwood Library