LIS520 Janes

 

The Monograph:  Structure, History, Ancestors, Descendents

 

I   the book and how it got that way

Kilgour, Frederick, The Evolution of the Book, chapters 1, 5, 8, 12, 1998 available via e-reserves

Flipbacks!  PhiloBiblos 6/11

The Dog-Eared Paperback, Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age  NY Times 9/3/11

You Say God Is Dead? There’s an App for That  NY Times 7/2/10

The first printed books came with a question: What do you do with these things? Boston Globe 8/29/10

Drescher, Elizabeth, “Medieval Multitasking:  Did We Ever Focus?  Religion Dispatches 7/12/10

 

What is a book?  What are the defining or distinguishing characteristics of a book?

What’s your opinion of Kilgour’s five characterizations of the major innovations in the history of the book?

 

The Oldest Book from the Americas  

 

II   the ebook, how it got that way and what that might mean

Siracusa, John The once and future e-book:  on reading in the digital age ars technica

Armstrong, Chris “Books in a virtual world:  The Evolution of the e-book and its lexiconJournal of Librarianship and Information Science 40 (3), 193-206 September 2008

Epstein, Jason, “The End of the Gutenberg EraLibrary Trends 57(1), 8-16, Summer 2008

Mace, Michael Why E-Books Failed In 2000, And What It Means For 2010  Business Insider 3/19/10

Auletta, Ken, “Publish or PerishThe New Yorker 4/26/10

Epstein, Jason, “Publishing:  The Revolutionary Future  New York Review of Books 3/11/10

 

What strikes you in these articles?  What questions do you have?

How much of the transition to/adoption of ebooks will be generational, do you think?

What helps these transitions happen?

What does an institution dedicated to the long haul do in this sort of transitional period? 

Why has there been so much difficulty in definition of “ebook”?

How much of Armstrong’s definition is really necessary?

What’s the implication of works permanently in progress, as Epstein poses? 

Is information in print form different than in a digital/electronic format? How?

What is/should be the role of the modern publisher? Librarian/ information professional?

Are digital/ebooks the ephemera (paperbacks?) of our age? Should they be designed for discard or preservation?

How does the history of the ebook industry parallel/diverge from the history of the print industry, and what can this tell us about the future?

 

Hillesund, Terje, “Digital Reading Spaces  First Monday April 2010  (see esp. Summary)

 

E-Books’ Varied Formats Make Citations a Mess for Scholars  Chronicle of Higher Education 2/6/11

 

 

III   the library response

Anderson, Rick, “Circulation Trends in Major Research LibrariesLibrary Journal 6/1/11

 

Inside the Librarians’ Digital Library Library Journal 7/15/11

Kansas State Librarian Argues Consortium Owns, Not Licenses, Content from OverDrive Library Journal 6/20/11

 

            Why do you think the HathiTrust was launched?  What’s its primary motivations?

            Why so much attention to “workflows, policies and standardization” and metadata?  Preservation?  Aggregation?

            Look at the areas covered by working groups and committees; what does that list tell you about the project and its operation?  Are there areas missing there you find interesting?

 

Darnton, Robert, “A Library Without Walls”, NYR Blog (New York Review of Books) posted 10/4/10

Digital Public Library of America project wiki (Berkman Center, Harvard University)

Rausing, Lisbet, “Toward a New Alexandria  The New Republic 3/12/10 

 

            How would you describe the DPLA project to a friend, not in the library field?  What do you think their reaction would be?

            Do you think the DPLA is a good idea?  What are its advantages and drawbacks, in your mind?

 

COSLA:  eBook Feasability Study for Public Libraries (HUGE pdf file, fyi)

Shaw, Jonathan, “Gutenberg 2.0  Harvard Magazine May-June 2010

 

The Future of Libraries in the E-Book Age NPR 4/4/11

The Future of Libraries in the Digital Age NPR 12/4/04

 

            What differences do you see (hear) between these two stories?  Why do you think the question of the future of libraries continues to arise in the popular consciousness?

            From everything you read here, how would you characterize the library response so far to ebooks?

 

UW Libraries FAQ on ebooks, netLibrary

 

 

extra   the case of Google Book Search

(see the ALA Washington Office Google Book Search website at http://wo.ala.org/gbs/ and set of links from Library Journal at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6650383.html )

Band, Jonathan, A Guide for the Perplexed:  Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement 2008

Coyle, Karen, “The Google/AAP Settlement:  What’s in it for Libraries?” January 2009

Oder, Norman, “Fissures Evident in Panel on Google Settlement”, Library Journal 7/23/09

Helft, Miguel, “Advocates Ask Google for Privacy Guarantees in Online Library”, New York Times Bits 7/23/09

Singel, Ryan, “Disability Group Boosts Google Book Search”, wired.com Epicenter 8/7/09

Oder, Norman, “More Pushback Against the Google Book Search Settlement”, Library Journal 8/11/09

Hadro, Josh, “Michigan Deal A New Twist on Access to Scanned Book Content”, Library Journal 7/23/09

Sage, Alexandra, “Sony plugs Google’s library into e-readers”, Reuters 7/29/09

 

Darnton, Robert, “Google & the Future of Books”, The New York Review of Books 56 (2), 2/12/09

 

 

What strikes you in these articles?  What questions do you have?

Is Google Book Search a good idea?  For whom?  Under what circumstances?  Who might be hurt by it?

Why (How) did “ordinary” public libraries get thrown into the Google settlement without participating?

And why public libraries (cf. some other entity)?

Which of Karen Coyle’s questions do you think most important, and why?  Did she miss anything?

Per the 8/11 LJ article…who gets to say who gets what rights to what?

What would a Google representative say to Darnton?

He lays out 2 paths, the utopian and the jeremiad…what’s at the end of each of those roads?

Who is Darnton’s intended audience, do you think?

 

Does any of this make you further question or rethink Kilgour’s 5 elements?

 

 

 

older things

Blumenthal, Ralph. "College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age" The New York Times (13 May 2005) available via e-reserves

eBooks—Costs and Benefits to Academic and Research Libraries, Springer, 2007

Young, Jeffrey, “Book 2.0:  Scholars turn monographs into digital conversations”, Chronicle of Higher Education 7/28/2006

Brown, et al, University Publishing in a Digital Age, Ithaka, July 2007

Carnevale, Dan, “Amazon to Sell Digital Copies…” Chronicle of Higher Education 7/6/2007

Stone, Brad, “Are Books Passe?New York Times 9/6/2007

 

Bell, David A. “The Bookless FutureThe New Republic 5/2/2005

Malama, Landoni & Wilson, “What Readers Want:  A Study of E-Fiction Usability”, DLib 11(5), May 2005

 

About Google Book Search

Ekman, Richard, “The Books Google Could Open”, Washington Post 8/22/2006

Albanese, Andrew, “Scan this Book!”, Library Journal, 8/15/2007

Duguid, Paul, “Inheritance and Loss?  A Brief Survey of Google Books”, First Monday 12(8), August 2007

 

The Book, Then and Now”, Engines of Ingenuity #1775 2003

Journal of Electronic Publishing (University of Michigan Press)

Antelope Publishing (no, seriously; ebooks, including for children, via Web browser)

“The Battle to Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World Clifford Lynch, First Monday, June 2001

“Books Get Interactive Makeover” bbc.co.uk, May 2004

Poe, Marshall, “Note to Self: Print Monograph Dead; Invent New Publishing Model” Journal of Electronic Publishing 7, December 2001

Dreher, Christopher, “Why Do Books Cost So Much?”, salon.com

“Electronic Books:  Reports of their Death are Greatly Exaggerated”, Online July/August 2002

Top 20 e-books from Questia, Open eBook Forum's eBook Bestseller List (August 2004)

Presentation “eBooks in Libraries” from eBooks in the Public Library Conference (March 2004) Theresa Horner HarperCollins

‘Book Stumpers’ and the Search for Lost Memories:  Web Service Helps Readers Recover Favorite Childhood Works NPR Weekend Edition 1/25/03

Publishers: Get Ready for the New ISBN! NISO, 2003

Ditlea, Steve, “The Electronic Paper ChaseScientific American, Nov. 1, 2001

“Battle Over Access to Online Books”, New York Times, 6/17/2002

press release on netLibrary and Gale, 9/30/2002

Esposito, Joseph J. "The Processed Book" First Monday 8(3) (3 March 2003)

Mellor, Phil. "CAMiLEON: Emulation and BBC Domesday" RLG DigiNews 7(2) (15 April 2003)

Steele, Colin.  "Phoenix Rising: New Models for the Research Monograph?"  Learned Publishing 16(2), 111-122 (April 2003)

Cox, John, “E-Books:  Challenges and Opportunities”, DLib 10 (10), October 2004

Mattison, David, “Alice in E-book Land”, Computers in Libraries 22(9), Oct 2002

Press Release from Open eBook Forum 9/16/2003