The Future of Books

I 've always been a bibliophile, a lover of books. I once imagined a library filled with books that had no authors names on them. Just pure, knowledge, just pure experience and communication of the world out there. A library where you read from interest not authority.

I think technology gives us a chance to realize this dream and the dream of affordable access to the written word by everyone - a total sum of knowledge, that written and even that thought. Books updated every minute and not years. Books which find their readers and aren't lost like nuggets of gold but which are the very air we breath (however much I'll miss that moment of discovery, that eureka of finding a great book).

Much depends on us concerned citizens getting it right, so the new digitalization of literature and script is not coopted by large forces/groups/organizations and made into a traditionally owned and operated product, for profit. What I call a "prodfit" a product meant to make a buck and not much to give a fuc.....

Richard Baraniuk passionately makes this case.....he discusses his own university's work and that of others and if but for these "links" , it is a great watch. He deals with profound ideas and we educators would do well to listen to them. I especially enjoy his take of CC license and will post more on this important topic....enjoy!

0 members like this

Next Post >

Comment by Laura Gibbs on July 11, 2007 at 9:15pm: Thanks for this nice blog post! I am amazed by all the great opportunities that digital books give me that I did not have when there were only the printed copies! I work on Aesop's fables, which are usually collected into books rather arbitrarily - so one of the things I have been doing is taking the books that I find on GoogleBooks and reformatting the fables one by one so that they each go on their own webpage, making them indexable, linkable, etc. - I even found a fabulous Aesop's fables Latin textbook from the year 1787 online!!! as a PDF document it is not very useful, but I digitally "cut it up" into pieces, making it easier to see, fable by fable, just what is in that book. I LOVE DIGITAL BOOKS! :-)

here's a fable from that 1787 book!

http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/clarke/111.htm

http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/clarke/111.htm

Comment by ddeubel on July 12, 2007 at 1:32am: Laura,

I'm a big fan of folklore and folktales. I've spent a lot of time making digital stories of many Korean folktales and I should get going and organize them in some fashion for a broader audience....You are commended for any effort to "conserve" this part of our vital heritage and we got to promote stories in all forms more....it is still all just story and I'm excited as you are at the possibilities of this next stage in the Gutenberg galaxy, though I realize the dangers that could happen, if we let technology become a wall and not a gate...

I really like the stage of having not just an electronic library but also a community among this "thought". That I see, is the real horizon. Have you ever read the classic of Canetti, "auto da fe"? A great book about books and he warns us about how print isolated and interiorized too much.... Great read anyways, I recommend.

I didn't post Baraniuk's website. Take a look, a lot there and a great start at
http://cnx.org

DD

Comment by Durff on July 12, 2007 at 9:49am: There is no future for mass disbursal of print books. The future is digital books...and they are here!