flight of the condor II
Our project for the "Conservation of Historical Libraries of Arequipa, Peru" is underway. Participating are the Universities of Alabama, Texas and Iowa with materials donations from
Archival Products. We will be on-site in July. Power Point if you want one at the UI Libraries, Preservation
News.
screen pop-up, pop-up book
The
edge here is what we need. Be there and be square.
(ok, ok...Just who is the "square" in the manifesto?)
(A square is a post-digital nerd positioned in the tangible world first with a wily sense of the things there, especially the books. The square knows that the hands prompt the mind and that intelligent skills begin with tactile investigation, up to and including the skills of community and personal relations. The square knows that conveying conceptual works in physical objects is an alluring paradox at the center of reading.)
turning slowly
"The company recently announced it would require all print-on-demand publishers to use its BookSurge print-on-demand service for their books sold on Amazon. Over the next few years, Amazon likely will use its power to build direct relationships with authors and gradually phase out publishers and agents." forbes.com
Want to bet that the Kindle will become a personalized avatar for book sampling with one-click purchase of POD?
ten popular fallacies of screen reading advocates
1. There is an analog/digital divide in the technologies of information transmission. (If there is any divide it is between paper and screen based reading.)
2. There is something distinctive about being "born digital". (All information is born digital. How it grows up provides the distinction.)
3. We are experiencing a one-way transition from paper to screen. (Its actually a two-way, not a one-way transition.)
4. Screen based books can be equivalent to print books. (This assumption overlooks legibility, haptic efficiencies, default persistence and self-authentication attributes of print transmission that are not provided in screen reading.)
5. The only history is the future. (Every revolutionary functionality of the book awaits rediscovery out of the past.)
6. The print book is at best an accessory of screen reading. (Screen reading and digital connectivity is an accessory, or bibliographic utility, of the print book.)
7. We can dismiss the functionality of the physical book because the attributes of screen reading are overwhelming. (Dismiss the attributes of the physical book and you also dismiss the functionality of sustained reading. The constraints of the physical book are instructional efficiencies that the nurture of reading skills of all kinds.)
8. Screen based delivery of text is self-indexing and searchable. (Print, unlike screen text, is self-authenticating. Print text is immutable, content encompassed and a reliable witness, all opposite of screen characteristics. Touch screen voting, census automation and many other automated tabulations from traffic control to genetic modification confirm the importance of authentication.)
9. Change is speeding up, leaving the print book behind. (The digital technologies will also engender a Renaissance of print. Paradigm change occurred in the 19th century with the advents of instant telecommunication, electrical power, digital encoding, keyboard interface and photo imaging. Since then change has been slowing down)
10. Print reading will die off with aging readers. (Youthful readers are perennially attracted to audio and visual reading while mature readers perennially assimilate sustained print reading.)
|
