booklab ii
Be sure to visit the redesigned and revised site of BookLab II. Craig has achieved elegance and precision in his edition binding. Long work, concentration, clever intelligence and quick sense of proportion; all there. The new BookLab catalog echoes Doors of Perception as another classic.
“Perhaps to conceive of useful things as objects of integrity rather than traffic is old-fashioned, but surely it isn’t completely unheard of even in this age of rapid communication and utility when things are apt to be ‘consumer goods’ more than embodiments.” Harry Duncan
first impression
My first impression of the i-Pad came from the Contacts icon. Its a perfect depiction of a book binding featuring the correct shadows of the tail edge and case construction release of the spine from the back at the perfect set-back of the joint. Also the perfect corner miters and endbands. But best, I noticed a perfect half square of the papyrus book…but then I accidentally tipped it and the horizontal transformed to medieval proportion 5:7.
Now I wander between nodes to keep it refreshed. It does seem perky and lighter than my e-Books. Will it will allure us from the old nooks and Kindles? “Although born of a completely different heritage, one of the devices that best represents the completion of the Internet appliance vision is Apple’s iPad. Press a button and the device is instantly on and with one more push of a finger one is on the Web in seconds. The Kindle, meanwhile, shows how the Internet can be used, almost invisibly, for a single purpose, such as buying and reading books. (CNN)
convergence not yet deciphered
(emailed to PreScan 
) The convergence not yet well deciphered is that between library preservation at ALA and library preservation at AIC. The alien appears to be emerging first in the library preservation sector and it may be that neither organization wishes contamination or distraction of its larger membership. Both agendas, the art conservation agenda (AIC) and the administrative agenda (ALA) have been unable to contain the surge to digital research and screen based communication. Separately they have both been somewhat unsustainable in library preservation specifically.
the web is so over
The web is so over as a serious reading platform. This came up in the RIT Future of Reading conference as well. Magazines, understanding their print attributes of dedicated reader experience, periodicity and formal structure, have moved to the new paradigm using recent i-Pad generation devices.
“This is not a magazine or an app or a digital version of a magazine,” Fiber Division vice president and publisher John Bolton says. “Quilting Arts Magazine readers have been accustomed to digital issues of our print magazines for several years, but this is an entirely unique digital product unlike any we’ve been able to deliver before.”
And print is not standing still. Wired print has had its best year ever and April was exceptional generally: “Adult Hardcover Show a Marked Increase of Nearly 50% for the Month and 16.2% for the Year. New York, NY, June 16, 2010— Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of April increased by 24.8% percent in April to $629.8 million and were up by 11.8 percent for the year through April. The Adult Hardcover category was up 49.2% percent in April compared to last year with sales of $142.9 million; sales through April are up by 16.2% percent. Adult Paperback sales increased 19.6 percent for the month ($128.2 million) and increased by 19.4 percent for the year.”
E-Book sales (still working their zero based trend lines) are up triple digits. But no one is looking at the back side of e-books driving print.