honorable mention
Perhaps the book conservator should contend that the physical book should now perform as a master and back-up for digital delivery. This is not that different from defense of the long reliability of book transmission, but we appear to be in an era of new doubters and discounters. Book conservators now work in the shadow of an anticipated rapture when screen reading will displace reading from paper.
But physical books transcend both old and new technologies and come to hand with astonishing directness. They require minimal decoding centuries later and they authenticate themselves. Because they are refined for bionic reading rather than for electronic transmission, they are immediately readable in both modes. And that refinement has dimension as well. Physical books can have elegance not only as delivery devices, but as exemplars of legibility, easy navigation and visual and tactile beauty. Finally, physical books perform in an ergonomic of comprehension. Just how this works, how concepts are conveyed by physical objects, is not that apparent, but they have a role yet to play.
e-book diagnostic
FotB got the top italic lead-in to a detailed
study of the prospects for the e-book. In the study various complications for the wider adoption of e-books are considered. Proprietary formats, digital rights management, i-pod equivalence model for the reading market, and culture resistance contrasting student and faculty preference are all posed as nearing remediation.
"So is all of this talk of change just hype? Or is real change around the corner? What has happened to e-book technology and markets to suggest that we may be nearing the end of two decades of e-book anticipation? Prior to this point, we can see a handful of distinct reasons why e-books have failed to take off as expected. In the sections that follow, we will look at some of these barriers, related recent developments, and, where possible, projections for the future."
Educause
In every consideration a broader factor is unmentioned; p-books may continue to grow even as their share of the reading market declines. Remember that growth is measured from installed base and e-books began at zero. It is also useful to more accurately contrast p-books (delivered to paper) with s-books (delivered to screen) since all books are now "digital".
With the individual complications there are also side-bars. P-books have long since resolved the proprietary platform issue by subsuming the very real proprietary formats within a seamless delivery mode of paper. As for digital rights management, p-books resolve that with linear circulation of a physical object; a truly clever solution. The i-pod equivalence model overlooks legibility and haptic efficiencies, default persistence and differences in musical and textual delivery paces. As for culture resistance, the notion that we will outgrow an antiquarian interest in print overlooks the timeless differing preferences between younger (more visual and audio) and older (more textual) readers.
living display
Our library has installed a "living display". Like the tableau vivant or motionless live mannequin, the open shelf displays real, motionless books. A banner describes the authors and explains that the exhibited books can be immediately taken and checked out by the passing student. So as the students pass by to on-line access, the books are relegated to reality. This is a useful, instructional outcome.
bright site
"I am an advocate for book art. My greatest pleasure and satisfaction comes when I capture the haptic qualities that animate artists' books, when the senses of touch, sight, sound and even smell converge in the world of an artist's book."
Betty Bright
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