dedicated eclipse
“Is the iPad going to take over e-books the way the iPod took over music? Will it kill the Kindle device, if not the Kindle bookstore?”
I have just returned from an in-store nook upgrade. It now provides a reasonable web browser and a screen contrast and sharpness better than Kindle 1 (which is better than 2). But all the front-lit electrophoric, dedicated reading devices may be eclipsed by back-lit multi-purpose devices. The constraints of print are attributes and that the constraints of dedicated devices may not be appreciated indicates the multi-purpose destiny of screen reading.
off to oz
FotB is off to AIC in Milwaukee. Only one enclave is even remotely interested in our “repent or burn” message. This is the library collections conservation discussion group. Our mini-moment is titled “Continuing Role of Print Collections in a Context of their Digital Delivery: Preservation Risks and Preservation Responses”. A better world will be visualized with Print Alcove, Leaf Master, and Strategic Future fulfilling the promised land for print. Next we go to an ALA/ALCTS:PARS-RBMS program at Annual (see below) and then to a whole fall seminar on the future of the book.
Strategic Future of Print Collections
A cascade of white papers and reports confirm that libraries are in a transition to mixed print and screen based services and that this transition is not yet completed. Accordingly, demand for direct access to books is projected to diminish as screen delivered copies prove popular. What implications can this transition have for the continuing role of print in the context of its digital delivery? Do attributes of the paper book suggest a new interdependence between print and screen access?
Three outstanding speakers will address issues of the strategic future of print. These are Walt Crawford, editor of the journal Cites & Insights, Shannon Zachary, Preservation Librarian from the University of Michigan, and Jeanne Drewes from the Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress.
This program, co-sponsored by PARS and RBMS, will be of interest to those concerned with long term access to and status of print collections. A summary bibliography will be provided.
(10:30am – Noon, Sunday, 27 June 2010, Washington Convention Center, Room #206)
affordances
Mystery about Print affordances came up in the last Webinar from ITHAKA S+R. It’s a bit amusing that there should be such mystery about how print could have exclusive attributes not inherently present in their screen equivalents. There really isn’t mystery about attributes exclusive to print, but what is a bit mysterious is why screen equivalents of print are so devoid of those same attributes. The print attributes that I have in mind come under headings of navigation, legibility, persistence, authentication and constraint.
Navigation: This is the attribute of haptic communication in which the manipulation of the mechanical format conveys additional meaning without distracting comprehension of content. Primate dexterity and a deeply embedded capacity for hands to prompt the mind are fully optimized by the codex mechanism.
Legibility: There is nothing more illegible than a black screen. Network loading and interruption, application, device and platform incompatibilities, battery drain and power requirements impair screen legibility. Browser default line length and justification distortions reach extremes of illegibility. The printed page is immediately legible.
Persistence: Print is passively persistent and provides both storage and display functions for a single, one-time cost Screen persistence is not assured due to content decay and mutability, provider interventions or demise and multiple media, software and hardware obsolescence’s. Fail-safe eye legibility is an exclusive print attribute.
Authentication: Print is self-authenticating with a capacity to sustain continued forensic and bibliographic investigation. The overt nature of print content assures a positive or negative result for queries. Print content and its material presence is inherently immutable.
Constraint: The constraints of print are attributes. The material constraint eases economies of authorship and production, and packages research and creative investment. Constraints of book design, typography, papermaking, printing and binding assure direct delivery to readers. Assured re-reading across time and cultures provide research validity and organization.