futureofthebook.com

future of the book vs. book of the future

The
future of the book regards the prospects for the print book while the
book of the future regards electronic reading devices capable of simulating print. One looks forward to advancing print technologies and a continuing role in transmission of digital cultures, the other backward to a regressive role for screen display.

book studies rubric

The book transends its disciplines. This circumstance is celebrated in fall semester offerings at the
University of Iowa Center for the Book (visit the new website!). The “Book Studies Workshop” will cross studio arts and book history (Instructor, Julia Leonard), “Introduction to Book Studies” will cross time and cultures (Instructor, Matt Brown) and Structures for Book Conservation will cross book art, book studies and book conservation (Instructor, Gary Frost). Add to this our ultimate UICB transdisciplinary experience; “Linotype Tutorial” (Instructor, Larry Raid).

a real exemplar for journaling

The British Library has suggested the Lindisfarne Gospel as an
exemplar for the contemporary journaler.
Definitely not the usual promo to sell packaged stickers and worthless decorated papers to the unsuspecting, here is an awsome challenge to project yourself in a book.

DigiNews survey

Looking through this, the
top story on institutional commitment to digital preservation skirts an issue that differentiates between maintenance and preservation. Are these digital resources being maintained on a collection development model typical of public libraries or on a model of permanent acquisition typical of research libraries?

I imagine the former, with resources deleted, revised, modified and reorganized. Will collection development policies override the collection preservation policies?

off to see the Wizard

We are going to San Marcos to see the
Wiz. Back on Tuesday with book futures news.

librarian avengers

This classic site still features the
Worship panel. Awesome, timeless! “Get your ass to library school!”

if:book book futures

Kim White reflects the intensity of the presentations at the Changing Book conference with her apt report of the Tibetan book culture depicted by Jim Canary.
(futureofthebook.org)

longnow long server

“Basically we will be harvesting all the file format converters we can find and make a page and discussion for each. When someone has a file that they can no longer read they can come to this site to figure out how to migrate it forward. The other half of this idea is that this will be an ideal time to suggest an open source format that will likely have a longer future ahead of it.”
Long View Library Ideas

publishing on-demand

The reach of Amazon now extends to its
Avantage enclave of independent authors. Amazon’s print and bind on-demand technologies using high speed copiers now accout for perhaps 10 % of published books.

half way to the future

Jonathan Rose predicted the future of 2010 in 2001.

“Now, I will not venture here to predict whether the e-book will catch on, but let me suggest another futuristic scenario. What if this new technology was being developed and refined in a Book Studies laboratory? What if specialists in the history of reading, the history of typography, the history of information, the history of printing, and the history of printing surfaces were working alongside the software engineers and the hardware engineers, offering a constant stream of advice about the interface between reader and print? Then, I strongly suspect, we could design this technology with a much better understanding of its limits and its possibilities.”

the return of 4 color relief printing

Larry Raid has successful moved the 8 ton, 26′, 24×30 four color proofing press to its new building in Denmark Iowa. This is the last operational 4 color Vandercook in the world and it is an awesome machine!

This printing capacity will be integrated into the U of Iowa
Center for the Book’s innovative letterpress program. Combining the four color Vandercook with our already achieved program in line setting and line casting, the UICB is poised to revive its leadership in modern letterpress printing.

***mining Walter’s bibliography

Craig is providing a wonderful service for those interested in the future of the book. He is annotating Walter Cybulski’s bibliography from the Changing Book conference. This bibliography is an expansive and thoughtful resource composed by an expert. It certainly looked daunting to me, but Craig is providing excellent points of introduction to the cited works.

dreambook

FotB rated “kewly” at
dreambook.

more, much more

Thomas Mann describes attributes of the classified print collections compared with on-line resources in the latest issue of American Libraries, August 2005. He contrasts efficiencies of browsing with inefficiencies of on-line searching. But this still doesn’t go to the heart of the print attribute.

In humanist studies print excells on-line access to the same content because of superior legibility, navigation and persistence. The speed of legibility, not the resolution, is superior enabling a reader to glance at a book as contrasted with scrolling a screen and the processing thousands of arbitrary keyword results. The navigation is superior due to haptic attributes and lack of software mediation. And then the classified books stay on the shelf persistently providing consistent reader presentations across time and cultures.

Keyword searching is adapted machine access while book consultation is adapted to bionic access.

another next thing

Iowa Book Works and
BookLab II will produce
historical binding model sets for book studies programs. This ten binding set will enable tutorials in the structure and action of books across time and cultures. Production support for this project is provided by Em Ellison, the talented young book binder just graduated from the
North Bennet Street School.

next thing

FotB pioneered the dispensing of corporeal books from the SnackShop 110
vending machine. This cyborg was the ideal emissare of the book craft kit. Now
Iowa Book Works takes us to the next level encapsulating the book craft kit design and production in the mobile
“job site” trailer. These pre-fabricated workshops are everywhere, and like the vending machine, are evolved and refined products of highly competitive industries just like the book itself.