On the myth of the death of the printed book, and an ode to libraries
Recently, a number of friends of mine have been tweeting, nostalgically, about how they prefer the smell of a book. Or how someone else laughed or commented with snark at someone who dropped their electronic reader (e-reader, like the Amazon Kindle) and said “real books don’t break“. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to search for solid statistics (this report on the state of the book industry in Canada is more than 4 years old).
But even if book sales decline, books aren’t really going to “die”, and the industry won’t die either. Yesterday, I was interviewed by The Ubyssey on Access Copyright and Open Access (I use e-journals and electronic, open access readings for my courses, and don’t use books). So you could say I’m one of the contributors to the decline of the book publishing industry.
Nevertheless, as I was exercising this morning, it occurred to me the impossibility of doing scholarly research online only, without any print materials. When I am writing an academic research paper (or when I was writing any of my books, or my doctoral dissertation years ago), I need to have enough surface to spread books, journal articles and notes and then assemble my thoughts and ideas.
Note the physical impossibility of having 25 e-readers on a desk and keep them open on a specific page. Same for journals. That’s what I love about libraries, and especially UBC libraries. I can grab some desk space or a table, open a few books on the topic I’m writing about, spread my printed journal articles and notes, and assemble my research and thoughts. You CANNOT, physically, do that with ONLY electronic resources. And if you say you can, you know you are wrong.
There is a place for print books, there is a place for printed materials and there is a place for libraries. And I know that libraries are transforming themselves and moving to more electronic resources. That’s awesome because even I have benefited from that – I do a lot of VPN’ing into my library and look for electronic journals. But when it comes down to the writing, I need the physical access to multiple books in one location. That’s what libraries, in my opinion, are for. And that’s why I think the death of the printed book is a myth, and why I love libraries SO MUCH. I am pretty sure that, for as long as someone needs to write a scholarly book or journal article, or school paper, or even report, there’ll be a need for libraries and print books.
What do YOU think?
Related posts:
- World Book Day 2011 and Copyright Day (April 23rd)
- World Book Day 2011
- Becoming Canada: Our Story, Our Politics, Our Future (book review)
- Living my life as an open book: The Living Library Project at UBC’s @ikblc
- Donating my books to non-profit reading rooms/libraries in need
Hi Raul,
Tim Bray had an interesting post a couple of months ago about his affinity (or recent lack of affinity) for bookstores.
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2011/05/19/On-Books
The personal experiences of people who I see at the head of the tail (tech friends) are really interesting and help me understand the possible directions for publishing.
What I tell my students is that the internet, as Clay Shirky says, contains all the previous media revolutions (from the printing press to broadcast media). At any point in a revolution, things are in motion. There’s no lightswitch to now we read only ebook. The other thing I like to point out to them is that the tools (ebook readers, tablets, smart phones etc) are less important than the motivations behind those tools.
Those in publishing paying attention to the motivations and behaviour of their audience are certainly in a better position to anticipate their audience’s needs, to understand their behaviour, and to think through the product offerings (print, web, digital, ebook, magical new thing not invented yet).
“Here’s what I do” isn’t the heart of your post, instead I see “here’s the motivation and intent behind my actions.” The marketers and publishers who pay attention to that will succeed in forming community, collaborating with members of that community and engaging in dialogue that will lead to better products and services.
Cool insights into your day, thanks Raul!
Raul, as usual, you get me thinking along new lines. As a fellow author & researcher, I find that I’m using a combination of digital & hardcopy to organize my thoughts. Evernote & Dropbox give me digital bulletin boards to capture searchable ideas but I still need to complement that with books I’ve read. As much as I love technology, I have not embraced the ebook reader – I read faster with a physical book in my hand. And I’m one to highlight, circle and scribble in the margin as I go. Of course, bringing the hard copy & digital notes together isn’t always easy so I’ve explored various mind mapping tools like MindMeister only to discover what I really need is a Sharpie, Post-It Notes & a blank wall. Old school? You bet. But it works for me and that’s really all that matters, right?
Aside from my personal process (and I agree with Monique’s comments on publishers paying attention to how their communities use information), I suspect the physical book is here to stay but, perhaps, with smaller print runs & higher retail prices. Books are momentos for readers of a certain experience, thought process or moment in time. An e-reader simply can’t evoke the same memory association. Some content doesn’t need that kind of longevity so it may lend itself to digital. The challenge for publishers is every reader interprets the value & shelf-life of content differently and so multiple formats are needed to suit those needs. Finding the right mix of offerings is still a work-in-progress.
Whatever format, I trust we’ll all keep on reading.