digital renaissance of print
"In 2006 Americans purchased 575.1 million copies of mass market
paperbacks. In 2006 Americans purchased
418.2 million
copies of adult trade paperbacks.
For those who are interested, 583.5 million mass market paperbacks and
420.6
million adult paperbacks will be sold in the U.S. in 2007. Those numbers
will grow to 601.7 million mass market paperbacks and 429.3 million
adult trade
paperbacks by 2011."
Book Industries Study Group
And remember this increase is in context with diminished genres of print. Compiled airline schedules, phone books, encyclopedias and other formats no longer appear in print. So the expansion is in context of a new found print functionality in context with digital delivery.
And these stats don't even tally the fastest growing sector of print; print on demand using high speed copiers.
from portrait to landscape
Galley Gab has tumbled from an up-right print page to a wide-ways screen page. Truth be told; its letterpress news. Also, from the FotB perspective, the Galley Gab readership does not have an old readership for a young on-line medium. After all almost everthing is now born digital, regardless of how it matures to print.
book studies on-ramp
"Book history is not merely a product of other disciplinary traditions. The recent proliferation of book history research has taken place in conjuction with the rapid expansion of the Internet and World Wide Web. During this period many established book historians, including Robert Darton and Roger Chartier, have begun to write about the effects of new media technologies. Simultaneously media studies scholars have turned back to studies of the book and print culture to search for ways to understand this period of rapid technological change." Kate Eichhorn,
L&CR
Its actually a two way street. Recall that the precursive on-line economy was based on print (Amazon) and material culture (eBay).
It may yet turn out that the paper book is accessorized by the screen as well as the reverse
arabesque
"What seems unique about our age, however, is that social interaction is a form of content itself, and it’s up to librarians to take an active role in the creation and collaboration within this ethereal “user generated content.” It's more than just guiding patrons, but making this guidance contribute to the new substance of interaction."
Future of Librarians
|
