THE world of publishing is about to be confronted by the same problems that the music industry faced over downloads.

Some publishers said yesterday that they are determined to learn the lessons of the music industry’s failure to get to grips with new digital technology. Others have their heads in the sand.

Digitally scanned books and papers will soon be made widely available on the web, a technology that some authors and publishers expect to revolutionise the world of publishing.

The majority of industry experts are coming round to the view that digital technology is here to stay and that they must adapt. Their comments came as Microsoft announced a deal with the British Library to make 25 million pages of books and documents available on the web without charge.

The move was welcomed by some publishers as a means of getting access to little-known material without infringing copyright.

British Library curators held talks with the book industry before agreeing to the deal with Microsoft and promised that they will not publish copyright material without permission.

The initiative comes after the launch of Google Print in the US, under which the stock of entire libraries and many books in copyright will be digitised and made available free of charge. Legal action to halt the project has been started by the Association of American Publishers and three authors. In Britain, publishers are keeping a wary eye on the legal challenge. Already, publishing houses such as Macmillan have attempted to exercise control over the medium by developing their own digitised services.

Amazon, the online bookseller, announced on Thursday night that it is introducing a pay-to-view digitised service.

Ian Hudson, group managing director of Random House, welcomed the British Library initiative. He believes that the book industry must ensure that it embraces new technology and avoid mistakes such as those made by the music industry, which ignored the potential for downloading until it had lost millions of pounds worth of business.

As Random House yesterday announced its own business model for online viewing of books, Mr Hudson said: “One of the things the book industry is trying to do is learn the lessons of the music industry where inertia left a vacuum that was filled by piracy.”

His views are not, however, universal within the industry. Nigel Newton, chief executive of Bloomsbury, which publishes the Harry Potter books, recently expressed fear that the Google Print launch was publishing’s equivalent of music’s “Napster effect” — when millions of internet users swapped music free — and could sound the death knell for books.

Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of The Bookseller, said: “Some publishers are profoundly opposed. Some are basically still coming to terms with digitising. Some are more relaxed about it. Personally, I think it’s going to be a most useful facility.”

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