Friday, May 9, 2008

typesetting clemens' copy It is interesting that Sam Clemens, who himself set "acres" of type at the case, should turn around and invent one of the most troublesome challenges for future compositors. Sam had a very quick ear for variants, affectations and habits of conversation and he is now is noted for his renditions of vernacular speech. In these renditions any word could be spelled differently compelling the compositor to an unaccustomed, attentive selection of each letter. To this day compositors must master the clever attentive state of mind that is needed to set Clemens renditions of vernacular speech. Subsequently Mark Twain became known as the literary inventor of the discipline of vernacular speech notation. Read the Explanatory that he provides at the very beginning of Huckleberry Finn. "EXPLANATORY IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding. THE AUTHOR." tech support Here at Iowa Book Works we run one of the few 24/7 Ethiopic binding tech support desks. So we really have enjoyed the anniversary of the first year of the popular Utube codex format support skit. Surfers are still discovering this for the first time and so they marvel at its implications all over again. The implications are many including the concluding one that the Help should not be in the same format as the reading device. wooden board e-book The evolution of the wooden board codex binding era culminated with the gymnastic, elegant anatomy of mid 16th century. This evolution had begun more than eight centuries earlier and had absorbed transitions from papyrus, to parchment, to paper. The wooden board binding technology had also absorbed the transition from manuscript to print. My point being that no one appears to recognize that the purpose of the contemporary hand-held devices or e-books is not to read them. Everyone is trying to read the things and trying to access books on them. The purpose of the devices is to learn their navigation, or in the idiom of the wooden board anatomy, to learn their book action. Yesterday I had the most interesting Kindle conversation with a librarian from Senegal although we did not share a common text language.

Friday, May 2, 2008

machine AND eye readable It is an immense attribute that physical books are so receptive to any sort of scanning, both imaging and reading. The current fad for imaging is only another enthusiasm of their use. Some presumptions do emerge, but the centuries old book will be witness centuries into the future. Imagine the presumption of the scanners who see their mission as "digitizing to preserve indefinitely". (more) Digital preservation of analog content has a number of presumptions. These include (1) that digital preservation is less costly, (2) that it requires less skill, (3) that analog collections will not outlast their digital simulations, and (4) that analog collections will not need rescanning. legibility and the immediacy of meaning "The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information’s journey is the last few inches — the space between a person’s eyes or ears and the various regions of the brain. Does the individual have the capacity to understand the information? Does he or she have the training to exploit it? Are there cultural assumptions that distort the way it is perceived? The globalization paradigm leads people to see economic development as a form of foreign policy, as a grand competition between nations and civilizations. These abstractions, called “the Chinese” or “the Indians,” are doing this or that. But the cognitive age paradigm emphasizes psychology, culture and pedagogy — the specific processes that foster learning. It emphasizes that different societies are being stressed in similar ways by increased demands on human capital. If you understand that you are living at the beginning of a cognitive age, you’re focusing on the real source of prosperity and understand that your anxiety is not being caused by a foreigner." David Brooks, "The Cognitive Age", NYT, May 2. next wave The University of Iowa Libraries initiative to confirm the continuing role of tangible collections in the context of digital library services....is here. This collection development agenda has moved beyond the five year stealth collection of leaf masters into an official repository. And beyond that, in the long term, this mastering and back-up collection, curated by the Preservation department, will validate the transmission function of tangible collections. vineyard of the text "If we realize that the rise of the author and the transparency of print was almost accidental, at best contingent, and never, even in its own time, the only way to understand production of discourse, we can more usefully and productively create alternatives in our own time." Lisa Maruca The Work of Print: Authorship and the English Text Trades, 1600-1760, by Lisa Maruca, is a fabulous reading adventure. This evaluation of the historical "naturalization" of print also expertly defines the ambiguities of conveying conceptual works with physical objects. Transitions and summersaults from the 17th to 18th and into the 21st centuries suggest that the producers of print rarely accepted equitable recognition of their different contributions. Producers of intellectual "property" and producers of delivered products of print both contend for privileged treatment. In our own contemporary context the competition continues. In spite of bias for supremacy of authors as literary producers, those creator's rights are now contradicted by "cloud" authorships, and the recognition of creativity of blog and web workers. And a dawning sense of the mortality and mutability of electronic works repositions them from eternal to physiological future life. But what about tangibility? Here, as Maruca points out, a fawning regard for the physical possession of the computer is apparent, regardless of implications of its connectivity or content. Maruca argues that we need a grip on the tangible components of mortal work and physical product because, as print history confirms, any technology of communication quickly disappears and is sublimed as a cultural agenda.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

haptic efficiency "The online reader expends a great deal of mental energy just navigating. Paper’s tangibility allows the hands and fingers to take over much of the navigational burden, freeing up the brain to think." William Powers' essay comes close to describing the haptic efficiencies of paper. But notice his list of disadvantages of paper that are actually attributes. The evaluation of paper should not be positioned as an absence of screen attributes. "In a digital world, paper actually has quite a few limitations: (1) It takes up physical space; (2) It can only be in one place at a time (virtual media can be accessed from anywhere); (3) It is difficult to alter or edit; (4) It does not play moving images or sound; and (5) It cannot network or connect to other media. The mystery is why a medium with so many disadvantages is still all around us." The physical space actually enables rearrangement in library organizations, the linear circulation is a premise of slower paced evaluation, the persistence enables scholarly interpretation, the lack of high density, visual content enables economy and durability, and the lack of connectivity is augmented by bibliographic utilities such as the web. The disadvantage of paper most frequently mentioned is its lack of connectivity and auto-searching. Digital content is self-indexing. The encoding that enables screen presentation also enables searching. But this disadvantage of paper hides an advantage. Because paper cannot self index, it self-authenticates. Which attribute figures in the transmission of culture? repatriation Note the diminished cultural respect extended to print collections in the context of on-line resources. This eclipse is apparent in the lost of status associated with storage of “lesser used’ collections regardless that the print collections are increasingly serving a mastering and back-up role for their screen delivered simulations. Instructional and research agendas are also relegating print to a format obsolescence that does not recognize the exclusive attributes of print. Finally, library services are swayed by service agendas and service metrics that favor digital services at the expense of print. Such developments demean print and tangible collections in general within a cultural context that privileges digital research and resources. We need advocates for print repatriation. omnibility "The emphasis is not on 'mobility' but on permanent connectivity in an environment where computational and communication capacity is increasingly pervasive. What is our world like when the network is not something that is 'out there' but when potentially all that we do is network aware." Lorcan Demsey

Sunday, April 27, 2008

book blog Jeff Peachey has kindly linked to FotB from his excellent book blog. store for hand made objects Etsy "your place to buy and sell all things handmade" has a book and zine department. Look through a crack in the screen and see the glimmerings of post-digital enclaves. Be there and be square. aic 36 The 36th annual meeting of the AIC was a wonderful pleasure. The conversation was intensive and productive, the General sessions contrasted meaningfully with the array of ten specialty group presentations and increasing PowerPoint expertise is finally producing highly efficient and engaging presentations. The capacity of conservation practice to lend historical perspective and a sense of cultural persistence and risk was just as engaging as the allure of new methods and instrumentation. It is actually surprising to realize that such an introversive profession can be so loaded with social implication, especially as the wider connectors to tangible collections are obscured by popularities of their screen simulations. The students are now the "big heads" and the older generation now relegates itself to a ceremonial presence except when irritated by vanities repeated. The loony certification tableau, honorific receptions, and a too swanky officer corps, entertained the old wranglers. self-indexing or self-authentication Digitization of paper books has a particular advantage as the bit stream processing renders both content and indexing. Content and indexing actually merge into a single commodity, dissolving individual books and library classification systems. Physical books also merge delivery components, but they merge content with authentication. This attribute is contrasted with digital systems that easily self-tabulate or self-index, but cannot self-authenticate. Distrust of touch screen voting or the failures of 2010 census automation both exemplify risks of focus on content and index merge alone. Perhaps we should consider attributes carefully as we select between functionalities of screen books or paper books.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

community service Across the street in this high end, high priced district there is a small, red pushcart hotdog stand. Each day I break away from the $6 hotel coffee shop and cross over to get a hotdog. They are spectacularly good, grilled and seasoned. They cost $1 exactly. Then I noticed that there is a "Jumbo" on the menu, $2.50 so I got one. It is the same hotdog about one inch longer. The bun is the same, the grilling is the same, the relishes are the same. What this street vender is providing is a magnificent service for the community providing the same meal for both those who have too little money and for those who have too much money. orphan masters "The Preservation Department is pleased to announce the establishment of the Preservation Masters Collection which is noncirculating and contains items that act as backup to digital and nondigital items in our collection. The InfoHawk record will indicate that an item is in that collection using PMC = Preservation Masters Collection as a collection code and in sublibrary MAIN. The collection contains such things as: 1. Books that have had a preservation paper copy made for the circulating collection and have been “withdrawn” from the public and put into safe keeping in case the circulating copy is lost or damaged and needs to be replaced. 2. DVCAMs that serve as the preservation duplicating master for U-matics that are stored in Special Collections and have a DVD available for patron use. 3. Tapes and CDs provided by vendors as part of a subscription or purchase agreement that back up material available to the public as CDs or online. This list will continue to grow and could include LPs, CDs, U-matics, audio cassettes, etc." Nancy Kraft orphan parents The exclusive attributes of tangible books; immediacy of meaning, haptic efficiency, persistence and self-authentication, these attributes also apply to AIC Members. These are the conservators, the secluded enclave that actually does the work, the activists behind curtains, who save art and evidence of the past. Curious how they work and curious how cool they are. They have orphan roles but families of legacies and skilled communities of persuasion both with objects and with policies. They do not let adminstrators forget that one of our service sectors is the artifactual world. All the new meanings still reside in the source original. aic certification This September the AIC membership will vote, up or down, for a practitioner certification program. I am still not sure if the certification function is at home in the organization, but maybe it is. One functionality that is at home in AIC is the practice called “training the trainers”. This is the routine training for those who must manage others in preservation activities. So my question is if the AIC would have more self-validation with a process of certifying the certifiers. All the organization would need to do is to point to programs and apprentice opportunities that meet excellent performance for education and accreditation of students. This different agenda would have a distinct advantage of pointing to responsible educational opportunities without the need to implement de-certification. It would also perform a recognition service that is not redundant or ambivalent, expensive or unsustainable.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

been there, done that "I don't want this to lapse into the well-worn trope that conflates literacy with moral and civic value - but I'm unnerved by the notion of a fully post-literate world, and by the Flash applications and APIs that inhabit it." Sebastian Mary It really doesn't matter if the larger culture lapses into chaos. What is important is that cloistered enclaves responsibly transmit patrimony and efficient reading behaviors to a more receptive future. These enclaves, such as those immersed in the future of the paper book, have the capacity to outwit trends by their very seclusion. inter library loan "We have access to indexing and abstracting of EVERYTHING in the world. We only pay for what people actually USE. Some variation of this is possible for ebooks now. I think it should be the case for journals as well. Pay-per-use. Scary to some folks. Hard to budget for. Requires all kinds of new user education activities. Requires all kinds of different collection procedures. Maybe collection development as we know it disappears. Shiver!" Collections 2.0 The library as screen is prefigured in eILL agendas. At the moment both lending and borrowing is based on differences in collections. How persistent is difference? Will collection differences save libraries? This is a larger question than the digital dissolve of the entity of a given book. On the other hand, BooksFree flight of the condor II An exciting project is underway to conserve antiquarian libraries in the highland colonial city of Arequipa, Peru. These libraries house collections spanning five centuries including materials produced in Peru where printing was introduced in the 16th century. The July 2008 project is a joint effort of book preservation specialists from the Universities of Alabama, Iowa and Texas. There is a PowerPoint introduction. post digital book "Cracking the Code with Mixmaster Scrap June 10th and 11th; June 13th and 14th Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday; Saturday, 9:00-5:00, Art and Architecture Building , University of Utah Get your swerve on with this inquiry into the uses and utility of the artist's sketchbook, a venerable tool with the dexterity to act as planner, journal and muse Timothy Ely-aka, Mixmaster Scrap-began making books as an errant child. Interest in UFOs, alchemy, comic books, bones, and arcane religious artifacts led him from painting and design work to bookbinding." two circles Off to Denver for the 36th annual meeting of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Future of the book advocates are fewer in AIC but the great circles of AIC and ALA overlap just slightly where the weird advocates are. I was at the 1971 and 1972 meetings were the AIC was established from the International Institute for Conservation with I believe 271 members and maybe 8 book conservators. Today there are 3,300 members and maybe 30 full time book conservators. This indicates a shrinking growth of practitioners specializing in books. Over the years the AIC has divided into ten speciality groups. Meanwhile ALA/ALCTS/PARS, with too many specialty enclaves, is downsizing to just four discussion groups. Regardless of the naming confusions they should end up with an administrative discussion group and analog collections, digital collections and reformatting discussion groups. And just as the universe is lumpy, the AIC/ALA circles overlap at various sites. But the future of the book overlap is easy; its a sub-set of "book and paper" in both organizations. But we are also industrial spies in all of AIC/ALA/ALCTS/PARS.