futureofthebook.com

fixed displacement

“Despite exaggerated claims about the death of the book, digital technologies have indeed raised questions about the status of the book as a cultural artifact and symbolic object. Whither the printed page in the age of the networked screen? While traditional bound books remain dominant in the publishing market, how books are written, edited, published, sold, accessed, read, and preserved are becoming increasingly untethered from a spatially and temporally fixed materiality.”
conference on the future of the book

vlog as blook

Forums of network presentation can seek a legacy association such as the
vlog or blook with the book. Or they can seek their own identiy in a context of transient or ephemeral expression.

“The term “blook” has been actively used since the 1990s, by librarian/collector,
Mindell Dubansky, to describe unique or manufactured objects and ephemera that are made in imitation of a bound book or several bound books standing together. A blook is replica of a book and has no text. The term “blook” is a shortening of “looks like a book.”These items can be found as early as the 16th century and were made in many countries. They can take the form of memorial objects, advertising and packaging, toys and games, household appliances and others. For example the “bible regal” was a form of late-Medival portable organ that looked like a book.”
Wiki on blook

This is the definition of imitation books. Another meaning is the association of blogs as books. But what happens when screen forums cross through the curtain into print? oops, they become books.

“Print-on-demand publisher Lulu.com inaugurated the Lulu Blooker Prize for blooks, using the definition of a book deriving from blog content, which was first awarded in 2006. There are various ways for creating such books, including Blurb’s BookSmart. Just as Web-based services like TypePad, Blogger, and LiveJournal lowered the barrier-to-access to online publishing, such tools lower the barrier to publishing books.
The printed blook phenomenon is not limited to self-publishing. As reported in this article in The Book Standard and elsewhere, several popular bloggers have signed book deals with major publishers to write books based on their blogs. It’s not clear, however, whether a blog’s popularity directly translates into high book sales.”
Wiki on blook

newpage

Those who envision a paperless, or more exactly printless, economy should pause as they discard their daily pile of junk mail. The various paperstocks associated with four color catalogs and other mailings are fundamental commodities of national economies, As reported in
New York Times, the first tarriff on foreign goods will be imposed on Chinese paper.

front and back

Is it interesting that the printed page is two sided while screen presentation has only one viewing surface? What different consequence is there? One is physical object which you can look at from any side and another is a graphic intended to be view from one side only.

But there is more to it. Much Western art is one sided and not much regarded from the back while the back of the computer even less well complements the screen view. The page is printed on two sides with each lending continuity to the other. The page has two counter sides or, strangely, no sides.

Such a minor, fundamental feature does play into the materiality of the text and into a larger context of possession of conceptual works. Imagine the hominid discovering its reflection in a pond and then disturbing the semblance with a thrown stone. Is that the mythic of thought conveyed to physical object?

“For making calls, the screen-side of the device can slide vertically to expose a number pad. For typing e-mail, text messages and instant messages, the
Ocean can be turned horizontal and slide up along a different track to expose a full typewriter keyboard.” (look on the other side)

beyond Orality and Literacy

” Ong’s own argument was never that the advent of a new medium in itself created modern culture. In fact, he took care to identify both
Ramism and printing as byproducts of the more fundamental history of Western attitudes to space. He took both of these – and, by extension, Copernicanism, and perspective, and even perhaps science itself – as symptoms, or perhaps as catalysts, of changes, the real cause of which ran deeper.” Adrian Johns from his Forward to the new edition of
Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue by Walter Ong.

This is the book that set the stage for implications of the shift from the logic systems of the high middle ages to the visualizations and digramatics of science with a special sidebar relating the transition from manuscript to print. This is the foundation scholarly work used by McLuhan while it also describes the invisible supposition of the visual presentation of the networked computer screen. This is the precursive text to the connected human life way.

And, of course, the story is set in the transitions and danger of the 16th century France. And as Adrian Johns points out, our hero Ramus could not be less heroic.

bound to learn

“Manifesto:
When students make books, they
collect and organize information
focus and develop ideas in writing
express themselves both verbally and visually
problem solve ó hands-on!
share ideas with an audience
participate in a ìreal worldî process
learn about other times and places
Book making is for every kind of learner. Kids love these projects!
Read on, and enjoy.”

good typography is patriotic

Here is another home-grown degeneracy
White House typography. How can we look ever more silly to authentic culture? Here in Iowa we just finished a new stadium facade with giant stone engraved “HAWKEYES”. But the space between w and k is too wide relative to the closed up aw giving us “HAW KEYS”.

photo merchandise and easel binders

Of course there is a manuscript like niche to print-on-demand. The quickly expanding sector includes
photo merchandise including photo albums and photo calendars. Watch for innovation in easel binders and other tipping and canting book shapes.

“I have written affectionately about the book in The Book on the Bookshelf, but the focus of that essay was how we store books rather than the book itself as a designed object. I have recently been thinking a good deal about the design of the book itself, and I am finding it wanting, especially in its ergonomic features. Hardcover books are heavy and have sharp corners. Their natural configuration appears to be the closed position, and so we have to work to keep them open. Though hardbacks generally look better on the bookshelf, I have come to prefer paperbacks for their lighter weight, softer shape, and greater compliance. This is a subject that I expect to write an essay on shortly.”
Henry Petroski

paper wiki

One option is a build it yourself
service. But why? Because you may need to know what’s different from the changing screen. Think of it as a reference work.

new tagline

Iowa Book Works is now known for its “innovations for book studies programs”.

bourg p.o.d.

“Acme Bookbinding has just installed a new Perfect Binder that is just amazing. Our new Bourg binder is tied directly to a Challenge 3-knife trimmer and this system delivers perfect books, one after another, with virtually no set up from one book size to another.”

“Lightning Source now prints over a million books each month with an average edition size of 1.8.”

The print book now provides a personalized object to match the personalized experience of reading. This paradigm shift reverses the paradigm shift of the advent of printing. Don’t be surprised if your next Amazon order is printed and bound just minutes before it ships.

And, in another artistic achievement,
Keith Smith has just published his 250th in four color copier Lulu.com edition. Hamady may have been the first fine press printer to go to off-set but Keith may be the first edition artist to go from off-set.

the real digital library

While ALA positions its claim to
policy making for the digital library it would be approprate to look at the competition. The most apparent digital library system is Starbucks. Starbucks already operates physical facilities for on-line research equivalent to public library systems and the corporation is investigating the larger role of librarianship as it proposes to bring book retailing into the Starbuck outlets.

The digital library amorphic is just too wide and it can be approached from too many institutional bases. The ALA could be better positioned with claims to the “digital archives” domain. For example, the presidential “libraries” are actually presidential “archives”. They are called libraries just for popular recognition.

pontification without gravitas

Notional Slurry as pontification without all the gritty gravitas is a quick cosmography of component disciplines of media transaction.

digitization principles

ALA is attempting either to fill a void or wedge in between by creating policy on the “digital library”. Stealth would probably be the best strategy here, at least until the malapropt “digital library” is reassessed. But watch the
blog for some reality checking.

“The OITP working group working with ALA committees and divisions will coordinate the revision, enhancement and creation of new policies regarding creation, access, use and preservation of digital content.”

ALA probably should take a policy stand on authentication and the
library role as a trusted repository of digital literature.

place based learning

The dire need for a hand held reading device is obscured by the doomed
e-book print mimic. The needed realization is that the killer e-book is a BLANK book awaiting
connectivity to places and events.

Tourist’s Path. GPS is often used by tourists to mark and find specific locations.
Driving
Horseback riding
Walking & running
Golfing
Hiking
Scuba diving
Mountain climbing
Flying
Town and City Tours. GPS is used by many tourism groups to mark locations of structures and natural places.
Byways and Trails. GPS is used to mark roads and trails for hikers, bikers, and cars.
National Scenic Highways
BLM Scenic Byways
State Historic Projects
Coastal Drives
Route 66
Historic Trails
Pony Express Route
Civil War Sites
Walking Tours. GPS can be used for walking tours through communities and parks. Groups may use maps, guides, audio, and photos.
Cemetery tours
Historic markers
Community tours
Historic homes
Small parks
Buildings and grounds
Historical Reenactments. GPS is used to mark exact locations and times for meetings and events. These are great opportunities for students to write historical fiction.
Storytelling. GPS is great for activities that involve meeting at a particular location or events where the goal is to give people the sense for what it might have been like to have lived in a particular place in a different time period. For example, you might convene in the location of an historical tribal meeting or at an old fort. Shelbyville, Illinois holds a cemetery walk in the fall. Storytelling is enhanced when participants experience the same location as the original event.
Natural Places. GPS devices can be used to locate a range of natural places and reduce the need for signage.
Geologic formations
Hot springs
Geysers
Waterfalls
Animal migration
Dinosaur tracks
For example, middle school students in Wheelock, Vermont conducted a Study of Soils that involved using GPS units to collect waypoint used in mapping soil types. They used worksheets to note GPS locations, site descriptions, sketches, soil profiles, and soil type analysis.
Ecosystems. GPS is used to monitor ecosystems.
Chesapeake Bay
Salmon Movement
Changes in sea level
Hillside Erosion
Migration Patterns
Remote Location Tours. GPS devices work particularly well in areas without signs such as historic sites, building ruins, petroglyph locations, ghost towns and natural areas.
Biological Surveys. GPS can be used for many types of scientific surveys including remote navigation, locating specific points on ground, mapping species encountered, mapping geological features, and mapping boundaries. Scientists trace changes over time and can compare “before and after”.
Scientific Experiments. GPS has been used to trace animals such as bears, wolves, and birds. It’s used to mark old coal mines, mark underground wiring paths.

thoughtful summary

Ben Vershbow summarizes the state of the art of the future of the book. Although interested in the imagined networked book, the
overall landscape is well described.

optima

Transmission formats are initially considered for wide application, but eventually optimized for more narrow function. Competitive factors have narrowed the functions of print, radio, and television so that they are now better utilized for efficient transmission.

Networked computer screens, cell phones and barcode readers are still in a development stage where they are widely applied. Eventually these transmission formats will also have more narrow function. The interesting question is what sort of competitive factors and new transmission formats will confine these currently expansive modes. Perhaps post-digital formats will emerge or perhaps an increasingly crowded ecology of transmission formats will narrow the functionalities of all.

ìFor what we are dealing with is never replacements that put an end to what they replace but rather, if I might use the word today, restructurations in which the oldest form survives, and even survives endlessly, coexisting with new form and even coming to terms with a new economy.î p.9, Derrida, Jacques, Paper Machine, Stanford, 2005.

taking gloves off

Excepting photographic materials, gloves are
not to be used in handling traditional library materials. It also turns out that “real sushi cannot be prepared using gloves”. An
item in today’s New York Times reports the complications with use of latext gloving in food preparation. Another encouragement for
haptic responsibility as advocated
here (and elsewhere) at FotB.

“Interestingly, the capabilities of the haptic sense, and of somatic sense in general have been traditionally underrated. How would it feel like losing your sense of touch? Rather surprisingly, this is a catastrophic deficit. It makes it almost impossible to walk or perform other skilled actions such as holding objects or using tools. This highlights the critical and subtle capabilities of touch and somatic senses in general.”

bound and determined

FotB was honored to to speak at the
Society of Printers at the
Club of Odd Volumes in Boston. It was an enchanted evening in a 19th c. dining hall filled with bibliophiles. After dinner we took our chairs into the Library where Scott-Martin Kosofsky intoduced me as the “anthropologist of the book”.

Then I took the train to Bryn Mawr College for a repeat of the 1972 Philadelphia
conference on the history of book binding in the United States. As in 1972 Willman Spawn presided with grace, wit, and endless scholarly command. Included in the events was the spectacular Canaday Library exhibit of American Ticketed Bookbindings.

The FotB contribution to the bookbinding history conference
Advent of Case Construction in U.S. including Power Point. Also watch the Library Company Conservation department for
study aids on cloth binding history.

see what you mean

The weird thing about the
TeleRead blog is that the discussion is going on between YOUNG people. There is actual positioning here relative to print and screen formats.

polarity every which way

George Lakoff in Thinking Points contends that there are few authentic moderates in political issues and no authentic moderate positions. In stead we are each a composite, frequently contradictory, of conservative and liberal positions.

So here at FotB the next question is how such a reality plays out in any print vs. screen reading positions. More likely that individuals are not polarized either in their reading behaviors or in any average distribution of their reading formats. And what about a polarity between progressive and reactionary reading preference? Again, each person is likely to be “biconceptual” in the Lakoff terms. Perhaps the only single alignment to be espoused is pro-literacy and advocacy for a multiplexity of reading skills

bound to please

A
seminar on American bookbinding history will occur next Friday at Bryn Mawr.

libworm

“LibWorm is intended to be a search engine, a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for people who work in libraries or care about libraries.

LibWorm collects updates from about 1400 RSS feeds (and growing). The contents of these feeds are then available for searching, and search results can themselves be output as an RSS feed that the user can subscribe to either in his/her favourite aggregator or in LibWorm’s built-in aggregator.”

Minsky in Iowa

The Third Life avatar of
Richard Minsky decended from a bizzard sweeping the vast wastes of the continental prairies with a bushy greybeard and checkered red wool visor cap. “Meet me at the Silver Car.” We were both standing there with phones, next to each other not recognizing each others apotheosis.

His lecture was magnificent! Object. Image, Metaphor and the kinetic/esthetic vibrations these elements of art encite and the elements that the artist, curator, critic must weigh and balance. Some fine art is decorative emphasizing object and image embodied in pattern. Some art is packed with metphor, just as Artworld Market, the attractive Second Life Minsky avatar knows as she adventures in a polynesian glade of Manhattan bringing book art to real communities that lack physical gravity. Just read her
SLArt magazine (second life art journal), the first rag on the streets there.

Richard sweeps across all the roles of practice; book arts professor, exhibit curator, rare book collector, printer, bibliographer, bookbinder. He has accomplished his expertise through diligent study, attentive production and political advocacy (he does not believe in “talent”). Yet he never simply challenges us in terms of the conventions of practice. He challenges us to excell in our own inventions.

blank look

Publishers are captive of the 20th century (not the 19th which was the inventive era of paradigm shift in communication technologies). They are captive of the time of the advent of screen based reading when print and screen differentiated themselves well. This was a golden age when the attributes and functionalities of both modes were clear.

The complexity of the current situation is the ability of screen transmission to mimic any reading mode or publishing mode without regard to inherent advantages or disadvantages. Mimic print is pretty dumb, but it can be done. One clue to the future of screen based reading is to see the screen, not as a print surrogate, but as a BLANK book with live connection to content occurring in the presence of the reader. I have a dozen ideas about this scenario, and I am an advocate for print reading!