futureofthebook.com

***long scroll

Sam Vaknin appears to have written on every aspect of the future of the book, at length. And that’s not all as his
web site indicates!

***echo

The current Umberto Eco inspired discussion at
text-e seems circular to me. Whether the filters, or tools of selection or processes of peer review are in place yet on the web and whether they mirror or depart from such mechanisms long established does not elucidate the fact that print and on-line reading are different acts.
(more)

***case closed

“Scientists are developing a device which will allow people to read a book without opening it. The team from Leeds University says terahertz waves are sensitive enough to see the writing on each page within a
closed book.”
(more)
(link from Kristin Baum)

This approach suggests an end to debates over choosing between a print vs. on-line library; we will suddenly have both. Perhaps then it will be apparent that print and screen reading are two different modes producing two different meanings from the same content.

***actually real

“Previous attempts to convert library collections into digital form have often resulted in flat,
two-dimensional images that leave out key elements, including paper texture and graphical information, he said. The
3-D digital library will enhance these components of rare books and historic documents, giving readers the sense
that they are actually handling the books.”
(more)
Link from
Acme Book News

***real artificial intelligence

“In a way, Google has become the Web’s brain, its synapses fired by 3 billion searchable
documents and 150 million queries daily. As with HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Google’s
smarts can be scary. As the court of first resort for finding information on the Web, Google
could exert untold influence over how we think.”
(more)
Link from
Notes & Scriblings

subset/ vending machine for vending machines

Somehow this is a clue to the alure of book vending and reading displayed assortments.
(see PEZ vending)

gal noir hangs out beyond blogdom

As Richard Minsky suggests, we should hesitate to pose metaphors in between us and the only oatmeal lager brewed on the the berm of the only canal in Iowa in last half hour of the rake of the sun.
(less is more)

breakthrough on thumb texting

Now if the nine key pad does the alphabet, as thumb texters have already demonstrated, the input will be well adjusted to the dexterity of the primate fossil series. All that remains is the accommodation of the reading habits of the primate fossil series.
(more) As Howard Reingold or Stewart Brand said, back in 1994 a million years ago .print only needs to “regain its edge”.

Binding & Business

On February 20th Fritz James presented a Forum at the University of Iowa Libraries. The event was titled ìBinding & Businessî but no one was sure what Fritz would say. No one, not even attending co-workers from LBS were sure. Then he began to tell the most amazing story and in
an hour and a half, with wonderful grace and whimsy, convinced everyone that it was all true.
(more)

40% of all clicks are on the back button

Text in the on-line mode is easy to read, but tricky to comprehend.
(more) The on-line mode has also extended the abuse of plagiarism from zone of writing to the zone of reading as readers mime their understanding of text, assimulating it only in terms of search outcomes.

***Q. So what’s the future of the book in a digital age?

A. “You will never replace the convenience, the access, the
beauty, the tactility, the freedom from having to plug
something in and turn it on. Everyone thought that when
the computer came along this would replace paper, but in
fact the opposite has occurred. There has been an
explosion of paper. So one of the things that you quickly
learn about the computer is that it is a medium that invited
speculation because it appears to have so many
possibilities. But almost always these speculations prove to
be so perversely opposite of what you expect; we can only
sit, watch, wonder, and keep our fingers crossed. That’s
one of the delightful things about it.” Douglas Holleley
(more)

reading on the railroad

This train is enroute hope it gets somewhere.

“This was a corporate kind of reading without the technological support we now associate with corporate information management. The individual railroader had to integrate information from verbal, written and print reading modes in a context prior to any thought or hope for composite integration of these reading modes. And all this information had to be interfaced, real time, as the train charged on into the night.”
(more)

future of reading

“Imagine the freedom of being able to trek through a jungle, or lounge on a tropical beach and write about your adventures with your voice.”
(more)

strategic planning & preservation

Library administration is charged to produce strategic plans. They produce one and then another to replace the last. The lists of ìdirectionsî, ìgoalsî and ìinitiativesî swirl. Many of the labels; ìremote learningî, ìcontinuing educationî, ìsupport technologyî mean something else. At the end of the process, the new plan is only as strategic as the old one.
(more)

simplex vs. duplex

Screen reading is simplex; just look on the back side of a monitor.
Anne Ville will be interested to know that the inside of the house is now indistinguishable from the outside, except a shade lighter. The FotB office
house must now be a duplex.

bookbinding kits

Utopian Ethiopian
kits are selling like hot cakes. (Now, to the benefit of the University of Iowa Center for the Book). We have possibly the world’s only 24/7 tech support for Ethiopian binding. Here is another enterprise,
BookMaaker, in the bookbinding kit field.
On Paper also has a line of kits for journals and albums.

scrapbooking

The current scrapbook movement is distinct from other historical scrapbooking episodes for a peculiar reason. It seems to be a type of e-book decoupled from display devices. Or, to put it another way, the scrapbookers are conditioned to act as
bionic output devices. The
evidence is in the exemplars provided in instructional and magazine publications.
(more)

Anne Ville Live Journal

The Live Journal is evidentally a next wave blogger format including list communities as well. For a while FotB has been watching the live journal of
Anne Ville, the web name of an adventurous young library conservator. It is getting really interesting, both in in format and real time story. I hope AV stays down the corridor; Philadelphia, Baltimore? Where will Gal Noir pop-up next?

pulp Noir

FotB got a candy bar at the laundromat machine. The bar after mine was a different kind and I noticed that we “read” not only our choice, but the subsequent item in line. This is especially significant with machine book vending. Provided a stack is all the same price, they can each be different titles. This livens up the whole reading transaction at the machine and, of course, increases the potential stock assortment.

We are assembling two new arrays for the SnakShop 111/112. “Iowa Authors” will run for two months with Thrillers, Romances, SiFi and pulp Noir from the prairies. Paperbacks are limited to 5″ x 7 1/2″ which rules out any elite, scholarly formats. Then we will run a two month MetaBook array from the generative production studios of the UI Center for the Book underground. Stay tuned.
(more).

experiments in the future of reading

XFR/PARC has a
reading dog who can recite from print and a listen reader that can add sound to books. Also read what the reading designers
read into the future of reading

convergence?

The State Library of Victoria (Melbourne) has merged
preservation and storage functions into a single department. Such a convergence is latent as diversity of collection formats and diversity of delivery options create layers of source to surrogate transactions. In such a context the a change of status for source originals moves them from circulating to non-circulating storage. This shift to safe storage enhances their security and preservability and such benefits can be leveraged further if storage and preservation are under a joint administration. Additional benefits may be realized with fully merged preservation/storage policy.