books: research & experimenting
• http://vimeo.com/84412874
e-books & future of libraries
Melinda Reinhart
Visual Arts Librarian
e-books: who are stakeholders
publishers
editors
authors
graphic designers
readers
libraries
distributors
graphic designers
authors
editors
publishers
readers
libraries & what they do ….
ensure preservation of culture and knowledge
develop collections of materials
depends on type: national, public, academic, research ….
organize information
make information accessible to a wide audience for free
libraries in transition
Renaissance
19th to 20th century
21st century
print & e-books: shifting landscape
…. a book comprehends a treatise written on any material (skin, parchment, papyrus, paper, cotton, silk, palm
leaves, bark, tablets of wood, ivory, slate, metal, etc.), put together in any portable form, e.g. that of a long
roll, or of separate leaves, hinged, strung, stitched, or pasted together.
… e-book is a handheld electronic device on which the text of a book can be read.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
•
•
•
•
4th millenium BC: Clay tablets
2400 BC: Scrolls
4th century AD: Codex Manuscripts
1450: Paper Codex (Gutenberg Printing Press)
• 1807: Foudrinier Machine Mass production of paper books
• 1971 first electronic books: 1971 Gutenberg Project
• 2100: ?????
e-books : beginnings
First initiatives focus on democratic & making accessible for free internationally – public domain
Project Gutenberg (1971) – 1st publication US Declaration of Independence
Michael Hart created using books in the PUBLIC DOMAIN
Currently over 40,00 books available …………….. A self-publishing portal is available
e-books : digitization projects
1000s of library, archives, research centres, etc
have digitized unique and rare materials
free access to innumerable rare materials
Book of Nantes. Parchment. Circa 1440
Bodleian Library (Oxford)
Poems by Bai Juyi (772 to 846), China.
National Library, Japan.
Dual camera book scanning system
e-books: organizing & making accessible
Other initiatives attempts to organize e-books into internet libraries:
Internet Archive (1996)
offers a digitizing service
serves as portal to numerous e-books and other media, including web sites
over 5 million books from 1500 collections in various languages
World Digital Library (2009)
international digital library operated by UNESCO
objective is to narrow the digital divide
partners with many national and academic libraries
International Portals
Europeana (2009)
SEADL: South East Asia Digital Library (2010)
Digital Public Library of America (2013)
e-books: scanning books
scanning project with
major libraries begun in 2004
numerous legal cases related to books
with copyright - authors, publishers
e-books: open access
first open access books in 1994 – includes digital and print version
DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books (2013) aims to increase discoverability
of open access books
e-books: commercial publishers
lack of standardization & interoperability
different software and readers
DRM (digital rights management) & copyright
owning vs leasing
permanence – technology continually evolving
e-books: some questions to ask
• Who ensures long-term preservation?
• Who decides what information will be collected and kept?
– quality and unbiased
• Who ensures that information will be free and accessible?
– Digital divide
• Who decides what formats to keep and ensures future
transfers?
building an academic library collection
• Humanities and Arts e-books have become available more
recently; many still not available online
• hybrid collections of paper & electronic book collections
for forseeable future
building collections: acquiring e-books
• e-book availability for different disciplines
• e selection models
• title by title
• packages – no selection or control over titles
• usage model
• single vs multiple
• access models
• subscription vs perpetual access
Explore E-books at Concordia Libraries
collecting: not everything is available through Google books
• Library acquired e-book copy for $160
Print Culture: from steampress to ebook.
Frances Roberston. NY: Routledge, 2013.
– Google Books missing pages & images
– $125 for hardback
– $40 for paperback
collecting: would you buy this book for library?
Vendor prices:
– $292 single user e-book
– $488 multi-user e-book
– Paper
$72
• Partially available on Google Books
collecting: only in paper & reading experience
Irma Boom: The Architecture of the Book
collecting: many titles only available in paper
Emigre Graphic Design into the Digital Realm.
Rudy Vanderlans, Zuzana Licko, and Jan van Gent.
New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.
• Will this be digitized?
• And what about reading experience?
…. a death greatly exaggerated…
not all books will be retrospectively digitized
Google has digitized 15 million of approximately 300 million titles
strength and durability of paper can be easily preserved while much digital information is
already lost
print on demand: suggests many people still prefer paper
“Paper books and electronic books should be thought of as allies not enemies.”
(R. Darnton)
e-books: things to consider
not everyone has access to computers - restrictions
copyright and restrictions printing, copying
subscription or perpetual access
type of reading – fragmented or sustained
future transferability to other medium
academic libraries in transition
…. university libraries of the future …..expect vibrant spaces where
books are important but people are central
…. transition from reader and book-centred to community and
learning-centred
Recent example
Hunt Library
North Carolina State University
Transitions at Concordia University Library
Entrance to the R. Howard Webster Library and “Ask Us” space with
green wall to the right (Architects ‘ images)
Perspective of the second floor of the LB Building: group study rooms on
the right, glass wall of large study hall on the left.
“Libraries are places where critical thinking is encouraged to
thrive. We’ll be creating new spaces to stimulate intellectual
discourse by accommodating group interaction and more social
forms of learning as well as better conditions for silent study.”
Dr. Guylaine Beaudry,
Interim Library Director
consult, consult, consult with stakeholders ….students, faculty, staff
Webster Library – try new technology
Mediascape: furniture and technology integrated together with dual screens
to allow you to share information from your tablets and laptops
Questions
Biographias. Alicia Martin. sculptural installation at
Casa de America, Madrid.
Spirit of Libraries
Little Free Library Movement
Artists books Ditial initiatives
• 3d printed artists book
• This is not a poem Alan Bigelow
• Life is like water Peter Horvath
• Columbia College - Interarts - Expanded-artists-books
Paradigm shifts
Introducing the book