futureofthebook.com

hands on bookbinding

Priscilla Spitler the fabulous design binder and graceful and precise edition binder can be visited at her new webisite.

digital preservation reformatting

“It is possible to suggest that the preservation function of a digital surrogate is embedded in its continuing relation with a persistent original. Three reasons for this recognition of digitization as a preservation reformatting method are (1) currently digital reformatting is predominately applied to special materials, (2) digital preservation reformats provide a different reading mode for the study of originals and (3) digital preservation reformats are intended to persist long enough to sustain parallel study of surrogate and original. ”
(more)

new joint program, new course

The University of Iowa Center for the Book and the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science have developed a
joint program. Included is a new course,
Structures for Book Conservation.

book craft book store

Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord is a book art teacher who has popularized book work as a learning path. Her rich website is a great resource both as an exemplar and reference.

“Over the years my teaching has evolved. In the beginning, I approached the book very much as a tool of artistic and personal expression. I came to see that what teachers need are ways to work within the curriculum. I now teach them how to make books that make learning facts and concepts and doing research fun. “

making books out of scraps

Alex and Magu Applella report from the alto plano mining camps of Bolivia on their
Transient Book workshops.

taking the book out of scrapbook

Scrapbookers have been characterized as
bionic output devices. This inspite of their heartfelt regard for children and the life cycle of the family.

Scrapbookers now appear to be moving away from the book format with recent trends favoring the archaic sampler, trading cards and steamer trunk tags. This is a dimensional
montage format of which printer engines are not yet capable.

The strings attached are the agendas of industry and retailers in the profitable world of paper conversion. The art is actually an esthetic that layers the most product over the least content.

Of note in the current stylistic trends is the rendition of instant antiquity. This “shabby chic” style is achieved with a new array of distressed, mottled and torn surface treaments including singeing. Also new product lines including staining stamp pads and grometing hardware.

This instant antique style is not so much homage to period scrapbooks and their authentic allures as it is a presentation of contemporary life in a nostagic glow. These things will look silly in a short while and provide trivial historical documentation.

preservation of the changing book

The
2005 event is suddenly arriving. We hope that FotB readers will consider this as a real TV moment to confront the actual materiality of their perceptional peers.

Sure, we know, that the event will happen in Iowa. But perhaps this is the workshop at the end of the Universe where the fringe of the book format really hangs out. Be there or be flat.

preservation and persistence of bookwork

“So making models of historical bookbindings accentuates the experience of bookbinding. Beyond skills of modern craftwork this specialty requires both careful evaluation of historical materials and evidence of historical methods and a bit of defiance of time in its communion with others of another era.”

Making models of historical bookbinding types preserves craft skills and offers an excellent learning experience.
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new age projection

“A book is no longer a tangible thing; a book is what a book does. It is an information architecture. We examine the various manifestations of electronic book readers and imminent technologies, such electronic ink, including a case study on the use of ebook reading devices by a lending library, and speculate about other uses of such devices. We see the
convergence of print and etext – manifestations of the same thing – electronically stored text, with the difference demonstrated only in their final rendering.”

The key here is “demonstrated only in their final rendering” as the different
reading modes of either print reading or on-line screen reading do demonstrate.
But, perhaps this is not a trivial difference.

always taking off as the tide is turning

The demise of the hand held e-book was
documented here a number of years ago.
This month (September) it was also documented in the American Libraries magazine; “E-books Round Two” by Andrew K. Pace.

He faults a lack of content for the failure, but the old Voyager video disc was popular with a single title and Packman and Galaga alone sustained a whole generation of game readers. Now there are more literary works available on-line than ever and still the handheld reading device is dead. Maybe it is the malaproped reading mode of simulated print on-line after all.

But wait, “the tide is turning”. The focus is now on “digital readers”, and not on electronic display, but on paper display. (more on
booke vs. ebook)