shared print archive
“In almost any scenario, the level of completeness across the entire group is notably (10-20%) higher than the completeness of the most complete individual members. Also, in many scenarios, it is interesting to note the way that many “small” or “tiny” libraries can add value to the whole system. There is, I find, some received wisdom in intersection of the preservation and collection development community that assumes the big academic collection stand alone. What this toy suggests, and this has been born out in the WeST experience, is that the big collections are necessary hubs and natural archive providers, but that they are dependent on the broader network to achieve completeness.” Jake Nadal
From remote storage to high density storage to shared print archive, the revamp of the status of print continues. The preservation perspective is in revamp as well. At first the attractions of security and more optimal storage provided benefit. Then the dissolve of classified shelving, more sweeping relocation and disaster risk caused pause. Now systematic discard is pending.
real e-book
Here is a good stealth comment on the future of e-print. The digital revolution, whatever that is, has benefited print books as much as screen books. Paper and print industries were early in conversion to digital production since the reading device and delivery format did not need invention and development as was required for screen books. The result is that print has advanced its own future faster.
cloud print
A recent study at OCLC concerns the “bridge strategy” that can guide academic libraries to shared print archiving in coordination with its screen delivery. Gathering inherent responsibilities and on-surging screen accessed instruction, the academic libraries are as compelled to resolve the continuing role of print as they are to hope for savings from shared print access.
A futurist response here is that unintended consequences are only realized following intended consequences. While cooperative migrations to the cloud and shared print archives are attending to item and volume tracking, new, emergent access for shared print that may follow patterns of Google engine access. These are synthetic search routines intended to discover and confirm cascades and patterns of publication.
There is also a new quantification of low item access within redundant print collections as it can be transformed by concentration to fewer shared archives. Other common quirks of research and access accentuate temporary, narrow access activities. A nominal glance back at the filming era suggests a minimum redundancy of shared print archiving that provides a “service” and “master” collection.
bibliodiversity
” A book is no longer a physical object ; it is not what it is, but how it works. A book is a reproduction of text and images that can be distributed on different communication platforms. It is a way of communicating, i.e. an information-bearing structure connected to various distribution and storage systems that compel us to treat it as a book.”
This journal utilizes the precept of diversity to engage the future of the book and reposition discussion into an ecological frame of reference. In that context preservation, extinction and feral survivals transfer their definitions to an ecology of culture transmission. It is a wild garden filled with lively ideas.
medium message
“The irony is that while U.S. policymakers have been playing catch-up, it has largely been U.S.-created technology — the internet, particularly Facebook and Twitter — that has sustained the spread of the Arab revolution.” CNN
Curious that larger cultural empires of Islam and Christianity emerged and were set in motion with the advent of the codex. New societies, economies and forms of government were mediated and transacted by books. Perhaps now another mediation of electronic transmission and screen display is at work and it’s little by-products such as the “e-book” distract from authentic culture change at work.