Karen M. Drabenstott
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092 USA
Voice: (734) 763-3581
Fax: (734) 764-2475
karen.drabenstott@umich.edu
Many thanks to Paul Weiner and Uwe Jochum for hosting our discussion on library research. I have been waiting for this discussion for a long time and was so glad that we had so many respondents that made for long, meaty digests. I wish I could have taken a more active role in the discussion but I was traveling between Michigan and Western New York to help out at home. Reviewing digests, I imagine that our discussion made some CRISTAL-ED members think long and hard about library research issues. We should revisit this topic in the future. Thanks again to Paul and Uwe for taking the leading role in the discussion.
Unfortunately, Leah Krevit, our guest editor for the topic "From the Frying Pan into the Fire: Non-traditional Alternatives to Traditional Librarianship," wrote me last month to cancel. We hope we can reschedule this discussion sometime next year. For now, we'll substitute an open topics discussion in place of our scheduled discussion.
This fall I have a one-week discussion period available from November 29 to December 4. I am now scheduling discussion periods in March 1999 and beyond.
What's on your minds? This is the season for several state library conferences. Are there topics discussed at those conferences that you'd like to continue in our LISTSERV format? I'm giving a talk this Wednesday afternoon to members of the Michigan Library Association in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My comments address a comparison of searches performed in a Web search engine, public library catalog, and Yahoo! that was published in "Mac Home Journal" several months ago. Have other comparisons of the Web and the library been done? Are they worthy of discussion.
Well, I am anxious to fill our winter schedule with good topics. Let's try to dig some up over the next two weeks.
D Heenan
CTO, PIX
Karen M. Drabenstott
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092 USA
Voice: (734) 763-3581
Fax: (734) 764-2475
karen.drabenstott@umich.edu
I've just returned from Grand Rapids where I gave a talk to the Michigan Library Association attendees. I was disappointed that no new topics suggestions were posted to CRISTAL-ED during my absence. Now is the time to send your suggestions to the group as a whole or to me (karen.drabenstott@umich.edu). I realize that we are planning for early 1999 but it is not that far away.
We have a short one-week discussion period available from November 29 to December 4. Is there some idea or concept that would warrant a truncated discussion? What's on your minds?
Robert Bauchspies
bauchspr@mediasoft.net
Regarding D. Heenan's mention of the vanishing book concern, The Economist this past week provides a rather telling trend countering the demise of the book by highlighting activity at the Frankfurt Book Fair -- considered the mother of all book fairs by many. The article goes on to highlight Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. and their electronic catalogs.
All ghostwriters should dust of their quills. Happy Halloween!
Paul B. Wiener
Special Services Librarian
SUNY at Stony Brook
pwiener@ccmail.sunysb.edu
I've been trying to follow the development of E-books and I find the idea fascinating, if it's as doable as they say. I don't believe they could ever replace paper books (though it might happen by default) and don't believe it's an issue worth worrying about or planning for. It surely wouldn't catch on for decades, and the kinds of other changes occurring in the world and in libraries meanwhile are unknowable. Yes, in 100 years it might impact our work seriously, but I've been saying all along that libraries as we know them won't really exist or be needed in 100 years, regardless of E-books. If people don't read now, why will they read E-books?
An excellent survey and discussion of these issues can be found in the extraordinarily expensive paperback ($145) published by Interquest and the Electronic Document Systems Foundation, Network, Screen and Page: The Future of Reading in a Digital Age. (1997) The price of this "research foundation" study is very telling -- though of what I'm not sure -- a warning of some kind? EDSF has a Web site as well.
Melissa Moore Palus
12-year Computer Veteran
First-year Student
School of Information
The University of Michigan
mmpalus@umich.edu
Hello all,
I've been lurking on the edges of this discussion group for a few months. Although I've been admitted to the SI program since June, I held back participating for lack of experience in the librarianship field. However, my work background has been in the high-tech area, especially network administration and PC management. I'm not sure where an MSI will take me, but it's going to be a fun adventure.
If I may add my .02 cents to the topic list, I'd be interested in course delivery via the Web. Another topic that may already have been mentioned is the introduction of new computer systems into libraries. How does the staff of a public or private library integrate the new technology with the existing systems? What problems were encountered and how were they solved?
Maybe my networking bias is showing, but I'm curious about the nitty-gritty issues of planning and implementing new systems.
Ru Story-Huffman
Public Services Librarian
Cumberland College
rshuff@cc.cumber.edu
Duncan Alford
Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A.
223 East Main Street
Suite 600
Rock Hill, South Carolina 29730
Voice: (803) 325-2905
Fax: (803) 325-2929
DAlford@rbh.com
Peter Drucker, a professor of management, recently wrote an article on information technology in ASAP, a supplement to Forbes magazine. He compared the current development of information technology to the development of the printing press in 16th century Western Europe. He noted that at the early stages of the development of the printing press, the printers (the persons who controlled the new invention) dominated the industry and gathered significant wealth. Later in the development, the dominance and influence of the printers waned and the developers of content (the publishers) became dominant. He points out in his article that currently the developers of computer technology (the chip makers, computer makers and to a certain extent the software developers) are dominant in the information technology industry. The emphasis is currently on technology. He forecasts that the controllers and developers of the content will become dominant in the information technology industry similar to the development of the printing industry in the 16th century. The emphasis will be on information, rather than technology. A discussion of his thesis would be interesting. In particular, what implications does his thesis have on technical services librarians? On librarians in general? Do librarians have a role in influencing the technology or the information? Many other issues could also be explored.
Karen M. Drabenstott
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092 USA
Voice: (734) 763-3581
Fax: (734) 764-2475
karen.drabenstott@umich.edu
Is there interest in a one- or two-week discussion on the future of the book? It could have any number of titles: "The Future of the Book," "The Book is Dead -- Long Live the ?," "E-books, Are Books Dead in the Water?," "Will Books Disappear in our Lifetime?" Are there any volunteers who might want to lead such a discussion? Please contact me directly (karen.drabenstott@umich.edu).
Diane Nahl
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Information and Computer Sciences, Library and Information Science Program
2550 The Mall
Honolulu, HI 96822
Voice: (808) 956-5809
Fax: (808) 956-5835
nahl@hawaii.edu
I know everyone keeps saying, it's popular to claim, that people don't read, but what does that really mean? Book sales don't tell the same story. Despite the fact that the cost of books has risen steadily, so has the number sold. There is plenty of evidence that points to the opposite conclusion -- people read more and more, and they read a wider variety of material, the latest -- screens and screens of online material. And where do we draw the line -- is it literature, biography, philosophy, science that counts as real reading?
The history of information technology (from the earliest forms to the present) shows us that technologies are seldom replaced, instead libraries acquire or give access to all forms and that is a constant. OK, so 8-tracks are gone, but LPs are coming back, and electronic paper (MIT) is being developed because people are attached to paper as a form for good reasons.
With regard to electronic books, the Wall Street Journal (September 17, 1998, page B1) featured an article entitled, "New Electronic Books Still Haven't Become Real Page-Turners." For now, according to the article, technology hurdles and high prices for the electronic version make paper the preferred medium.
Paul B. Wiener
Special Services Librarian
SUNY at Stony Brook
pwiener@ccmail.sunysb.edu
E-BOOKS TO COME SINGING DOWN THE WIRE
Saying that "if you can get to the Web, you can buy a book -- instantly," the chief executive of NuvoMedia unveiled his company's paperback-size, 22-ounce $499 electronic Rocket eBook at Barnes & Noble, the bookstore and publishing company that will make titles available for downloading onto a personal computer. Books will sell for $18 to $25, and downloading of a book will take 2 to 5 minutes. Tapping a button will allow the reader to scroll through the book, which will include a built-in dictionary and allow electronic underlining, note-taking, word search, and font changes. Generally similar products are being developed by other manufacturers, including SoftBook Press and Everybook Inc. (AP 23 Oct 98)
(from Educom online news)
Robert Bauchspies
Washington, D.C.
robert.bauchspies@exim.gov
Dr. Nahl makes an interesting point. Reading more perhaps, but the way we read and why, I believe, have been tremendously influenced by our information technologies. I once wrote about linear understanding in reading a novel where hypertext, while good for a philologist, an impatient reader, or someone who just needed to pass a test was a threat to authors who had ambitions of cultivating their 'voice' through the structure of their story. I was less than convincing to the rather skeptical audience.
On a related note regarding ebooks, electronic this and that, I'm rather intrigued with the latest CalTech finding regarding "quantum information."
Quoting Physics Professor Jeff Kimble of the California Institute of Technology, ABCNews writes:
I'm no trekkie, but maybe Scotty was on the right beam afterall.
Cf. "Beam up the Photons" at
www.abcnews.com/sections/science/DailyNews/teleport981022.html
Maybe we should look not at today to think of tomorrow, but rather look at tomorrow to think about the future.
Send all the books and book lovers to Europa. I'll meet you there.
Paul B. Wiener
Special Services Librarian
SUNY at Stony Brook
pwiener@ccmail.sunysb.edu
Memo Diane Nahl:
Yes, certain booksales figures are rising. Yet it is not merely popular to claim that people don't read. This claim perhaps should be rephrased as "People don't like to read," "People don't retain what they read," or "People don't read anything that challenges them." But yes, they read. The claim that they "don't read" is really based on the observations and experiences not only of librarians who realistically know that they see only a tiny portion of their constituency year in and year out; and not merely on the anecdotal evidence of the ignorance, prejudice, fear, stupidity, cupidity, apathy, and passivity of the average American voter and consumer. It is based also on what teachers from third grade right through to graduate school say of their students, on the test scores of these students, domestically or when compared to other countries, and on the daily performance of these students in class. It is based on what almost any literate homeowner sees when visiting a neighbor's home for the first time -- a total absence of books, magazines, bookshelves, or the culture of literacy at least anywhere in the social space of the house. That people "don't read" has probably always been true, though it varies with time, culture and socioeconomic class, depends on how they are being studied or surveyed, is not quantitatively worse than it has ever been, and has, really, very little to do with whether one's eyes run across a page or a screen and translate those little dark symbols into sounds, meanings and words. As a librarian I don't really give much of a damn if people don't read, since I work for the benefit of those who HAVE read, DO read and WILL read. If you want to consider reading quantitatively, then obviously the amount of material people read compared as a ratio to what is available to be read will always be decreasing, and computer culture can only intensify that.
Kevin Cox
Canberra ACT
kcox@spirit.com.au
Readers may be interested in "seeing" an example of an ebook at http://www.nuvomedia.com/, one of the companies producing these books.
It is interesting that Barnes & Noble and Bertelsmann are backers of the company.
The cost of $500 does seem to be high. It is difficult to imagine a great demand for these initial versions. Still the concept is intriguing and we can imagine future developments so that they come with flexible soft screens, color, built in communications and less weight -- starting to sound like a development of Palm computers where there is already an extraordinary demand. I suspect that the dedicated ebook device is not a goer but that ebooks will start to appear as one of the facilities in future Palm top devices.
You may join the discussion and look over the list of past and future topics.
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