futureofthebook.com

broken link to future of the book

The second
conference on the future of the eternal book looks no better than the first.

recognizing digital preservation methods

“While the report considers collection driven approaches utilizing one-time capture, the on-demand environment will require an entirely different, on-going association with source collections including repetitive capture for differing renditions. In fact the report is silent on the destiny of source collections. A premise of leaf mastering, or storage of paper and film based source originals for use only as copy masters, is not considered.”
(more)

materiality of writing

According to Hayles, “This
book is an experiment in forging a vocabulary and set of critical practices responsive to the full spectrum of signifying components in print and electronic texts by grounding them in the materiality of the literary artifact.”

materiality of the book

The materiality consists of three aspects. There is the physicality of the book which includes qualities such as texture, color or smell. Then there is the persistence of the book which is a material presence across time and cultures. Thirdly there is the bookís identity which is embedded in symbology of imaged content, characteristics of binding or its circumstance among neighboring books in a library.

Is there any aspect of the book which is not its materiality? Yes, there are three aspects that are not material. There are its haptic interventions with the reader. There is the readersí experience of reading its text and, thirdly, there is its influence on the course of events.

document vs. record

A paper book documents and records simultaneously. That is, it both captures content and conveys content into the future at the same time.

With digital media these two functions have become separated. In the digital world almost everything is documented but little is effectively recorded for future access. This is true for digital books and digital photography. Whenever the analog formats are supplanted by digital formats we have documentation without effective recording for future access. No wonder there is more than nostalgic respect for paper and film. No wonder that paper books, printed on demand, are the most popular kind of ebooks.

er, really? Go to
Lightening Source. “In one week we manufacture 90,000 books one at a time“.

***a reader’s enclave

“A book’s power lies in its ability to erase us, to expand or contract without limit, to circle inside itself without beginning or end, to defy our imaginary timetables and lay us bare to a more basic ticking. The pages we read are a nowhen, unfolding far outside the public arena. As long as we remain in them, now reveals itself to be the baldest of inventions.” Richard Powers (link from
wood s lot)

***early book art

Holly Robertson, a student in Preservation and Conservation Studies at the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin, has produced a fine online portfolio of
Spanish archival bindings.

***analog and digital

This stunning portrait of the two book formats of late Antiquity reminds us that drastic transitions of reading behaviors have occured elsewhere in history. Jesus and the Abbot Mena team up to show us the analog scroll and digital codex in this painting from the
Coptic room at the Louvre. (More on the
scroll to codex transition.)

glassy medium

In his book of essays, The Same Ax, Twice, on the nature and intents and results of historical restoration, Howard Mansfield also describes the endless bric-a-brac of televised conversation.

“The answers don’t matter. The questions don’t matter. The subject is only a pretext. The flow is all that matters. TV is about itself .it will eat anything it must to survive – no item of trivia is too small, no sorrow too vast, not to be swallowed entire.”

hypnerotomachia poliphili

Octavo’s editions of digital rare books now range across rare book libraries and famous imprints each imaged from a unique original.

accessories, not replacements

James Beaven in American Libraries (August) contends that ETDs (electronic theses and dissertations) cannot assume the role of preservation format, but must be considered as accessory
reading modes for archival copies on paper copy and microfilm. We can always discard the archival copies when digital preservation mastering is developed. This is “a much better outcome than staring at a thesis in a DVD box without the capability to play it.”
live journals

Seth Morabito at
Open Book has kindly posted images from FotB with his own perceptive commentary. This link has resulted in an immense traffic from the live journal and random image community.

Live journal is currently posting at a rate of Current 14516 per hour, 242 per minute. Random image sites are scrolling kaleidoscopes of strange views.

see books for the first time

Richard Minsky’s
gallery is the place to go to prompt your own insights into the future of the traditional book.

papyrus precursor

Everyone knows about the
Stonyhurst Gospel and the features of the earliest surviving western bookbinding. Because this 7th century book still exists it has established its own mindset about the structure and decoration of books that were at Lindisfarne at the time of St. Cuthbert.

The precursors of the Stonyhurst, the exemplars that the makers of this gospel had at hand to influence them, are conjecture and they may have been exotic. At least they may have included earlier, papyrus books. These would have been carefully preserved by Coptic and eastern church refugees escaping from chaos in the east of the Roman empire and brought with them all the way to Northumberland.

The Stonyhurst has certain features that may echo those papyrus precursors. These include the turn-in over the pastedown reflecting the wrapping of the papyrus cartonnage, or the relief decoration that echoes the cut and sewn filigree of Coptic decoration.
The model shown is an imaginary Stonyhurst precursor.