Comments on: The Book is Dying Again

By: Post Postmodern Librarian

Post Postmodern Librarian — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:25:05 +0000

I think the book will continue and libraries with them. Just because there are more ebooks sold and maybe read dosnt mean the two are dead just means there is a different majority mode of reading. Now we have paperback, hardback and now eback. You can pick the mode of your choice. Should libraries move into the ebook business sure.

By: Carter21

Carter21 — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:56:51 +0000

Good post. The hype of recent has been breathless. Just look at LJ’s Home page.

By: Spekkio

Spekkio — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:05:21 +0000

The AL has a short memory, b/c I’ve posted a strong argument against this same argument in the past (see “Hapless Publishers Now Blame Amazon” 14DEC09). In short: no librarians in “Star Trek.” (Yeah, yeah, someone pointed out a few exceptions by searching Memory Alpha.) Printed books still exist, but most reading is done on PADDs…which aren’t that far off from Kindles or iPads.

See also the documentary TV show “How William Shatner Changed the World” or the book on which it was based, “I’m Working on That.”

By: I Like Books

I Like Books — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:12:02 +0000

Wasn’t it once predicted that libraries, instead of being full of books, would be full of wax audio recordings? Old technologies are not always replaced so readily by new. Are printed books the buggy whip of our times, or the dinner plate of our times? Or the pencil? The wine bottle? The leather boot?

Some observers would see sales increase from one this year to two next year, and predict a yearly doubling indefinitely. Because short-term trends always extend linearly into the far future, like housing prices, right?

I have no doubt that sales of ebooks will increase, and that sales of printed books will decrease as a direct result of consumers choosing the ebook over the printed book. But they’ll find a new balance. We could call the printed book the pencil and the ebook the ballpoint pen– people still use both, and sometimes there are reasons other than personal taste to prefer the pencil.

Personally, I’d be happy if people continue to read books in any format, rather than thinking that some two-page article in the first page of Google hits covers everything they need to know about a complicated subject.

By: noutopianlibrarian

noutopianlibrarian — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:17:38 +0000

What is relevent to librarians, dear AL, is that the slow demise of newly printed books will begin impacting library services. Horses still exist – people still ride them. Livery stables just aren’t what they used to be, however.

If we shouldn’t worry about global climate change until the sun begins burns off life in a billion years, then there isn’t anything to get excited about if temperatures rise by up to 6C in the next hundred years. Wonder if those frogs felt cozy in the pot as it warmed slowly toward boiling?

By: Fly in TX

Fly in TX — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:06:37 +0000

Ridiculous. Libraries have always used the current popular media to provide information, not the media guiding the libraries. Back when microfiche, microfilm, and ultrafiche was new, everyone thought the printed newspaper and magazine would “die”. Instead of getting a paper on your doorstep, you would get a microfiche? Each house would have a reader/printer? This might sound silly now, but in years to come, so will the thought that the book can die.

Knowledge is power, so use it wisely.

By: Raynor

Raynor — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:58:47 +0000

http://bookavore.tumblr.com/post/871178080/e-books-article-drinking-game

You’ve left me regretably sober here.

By: Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:58:41 +0000

Paper books will never die because you don’t have to plug them in. They don’t flicker and die like Kindles when not charged.

The argument that kindles will replace books is on the same ground of thinking that cars will replace people walking or riding bicycles. Transportation is the goal of each but they are quite different activities and people do them for different reasons.

Ridiculous sentiment about the death of books. Good post, AAL.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:48:04 +0000

Ah, AL, this doesn’t seem to be one of your better-reasoned postings. It has the tone more of what I will sound like in 20 years time after the attendants in the home have refused yet again to wake me up for Regis.

To whit (see, I’m already talking like an old man): whether Bezos lowers the price of kindle books and so hastens the death of printed books, or whether people see the value and utility of ebooks and start buying them more, the printed book is still dying. Basically what I’m saying is that you can’t argue that just because Bezos does something to hasten the death of print books doesn’t mean that that somehow destroys his argument.

By: Real Librarian

Real Librarian — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:13:20 +0000

But how does this affect academic libraries?