The Public Library, Completely Reimagined
Teaching Strategies Fayetteville Free Library, by Lauren Smedley You’ll hear a lot of talk about the “death of the public library” these days. It isn’t simply the perpetual budget crises that many face either. It’s the move to digital literature, and the idea that once there are no more print books (or rather if there are no more print books), the library as an institution will cease to exist. Librarians will remind you, of course, that a library is much more than a book repository. But these new formats will indeed change libraries — how they operate as well as how they look. Earlier this year, MAKE Magazine’s Phillip Torrone wrote a provocative article asking “Is it time to rebuild and retool libraries and make ‘techshops’?” “Yes!” Lauren Smedley, assembling the MakerBot So far, the Fab Lab is equipped with a MakerBot, a 3D printer that lets you “print” plastic pieces of your own design. Smedley says she plans on adding other equipment as well, including a CNC Router and a laser cutter.
Bookstores Now, More than Ever | Booksquare
At next week’s Tools of Change for Publishing conference, I am moderating a panel on the future of bookstores (Tuesday, 2/15, 1:40 pm, be there!). I proposed this topic because, despite today’s challenges, booksellers are critical to the publishing food chain. The loss of booksellers — traditional and innovative — is a huge blow to book discovery. My panel features Jenn Northrington of WORD Brooklyn, Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore, Lori James of All Romance eBooks, Kevin Smokler of Booktour.com, and Malle Vallik of Harlequin. Nothing I say here reflects their thoughts and opinions. But do I think (physical) bookstores will go the way of dinosaurs? My philosophy is for some books, online is awesome. Obviously, I have a vested interest in making sure the publishing ecosystem remains vibrant. “My No. 1 concern is the survival of the physical bookstore,” said Carolyn Reidy, the chief executive of Simon & Schuster. Her comment gave me pause for a few reasons. And deliver.
Richard Nash: You Are the Future of Publishing
Publishing is saddled with this terrible reputation for being reactionary and Luddite, our denizens known largely for caviling against technology and the new-fangled. It is perverse, truly perverse since publishing is in fact at the center of two major social revolutions that dramatically disrupted the status quo ante. The first, printing, we all know and understand to a degree, but let me remind all concerned, pace Clay Shirky, that printing upended the established religious and political orders in ways that radio, television entirely failed to do -- these latter media being readily co-opted for propagandistic purposes by the existing political and economic powers-that-were-and-are. The second, retail, is rarely discussed but booksellers were the first retailers to take their product from the back room and place it on shelves on the other side of the counter, for the public to see, touch, peruse. This, however, is not just a manifesto.
Facebook For The Famous
When Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids, was invited to join WhoSay.com, a relatively new social network that describes itself as the source for "Photos and videos directly from Celebrities and Influencers," he was sure he was somehow being set up. "They contacted me about four or five months ago and they made the offer to help me put up a page," Feig tells Fast Company. The page would bring together his tweets (a prolific tweeter, the director has over 1.2 million Twitter followers), Facebook page, and other social media odds and sods, in one easy-to-use platform built to his exact specifications. "They gave me the hard sell," he continues. "I kept looking for what the scam was, or if I had to pay. "They were so helpful," Feig says of the WhoSay representatives that worked with him to customize his page, which he calls (with obvious mock self-importance) Paul Feig's Media Lounge. Other WhoSay users bypass commerce in favor of old-fashioned image rehabilitation.
Does the library have a role to play in the Digital Humanities?
Humanities and the social sciences have traditionally been disciplines aligned closely with the institutional library and its resources and services. Increasingly, in my conversations with librarians, there is a concern that while the library as a space remains popular, this masks a growing distance between the services the library provides and the needs and expectations of researchers (to say nothing of undergrads). As subjects like digital humanities find themselves transformed by their engagement with technology, is the library facing the threat of redundancy? There has been a flurry of research recently including the RLUK report: Re-skilling for Research and JISC Collections’ UK Scholarly Reading and the Value of Library Resources, exploring the evolving role of the library in supporting researchers. Similarly, Ithaka S+R in the US is exploring the changing support needs of scholars across a variety of disciplines.
Getting a read on the future of publishing
Crises spawn innovation, and despite regular headlines portending doom, the 21st-century publishing industry is bubbling with new ideas made possible by digital disruptions (and the odd hand-printing tool). Some will evaporate into thin air, while others change everything. But the level of activity today in Canada and the world strongly suggests that whatever the future brings, it will arrive in the capable hands of former book publishers. One of the country's most ambitious digital publishing ventures began when the staff at Vancouver's Douglas & McIntyre asked a simple question: Why is there no iTunes for text? While some lament as digital technology drives down both production costs and potential remuneration to "content providers," others see new opportunities. Everybody knows that what we call an e-book today will evolve into something quite different as text sheds its Gutenberg-era shackles, but nobody knows what that is or what to call it.
The Gates Foundation's New Education Documentary to Incorporate Social Media
The Gates Foundation's non-profit education organization, Get Schooled, will partner with filmmakers Adam McKay and Jason Pollock on their new feature documentary about the dropout epidemic in America's struggling school system. The documentary will use social media to connect the voices of students, teachers and principals with the world. Pollock will spend most of next year filming more than 100 public schools in America that are part of the "Get Schooled" Foundation. "Jason brought us his idea a few months ago, and we thought it was a perfect way to elevate the voices of students, teachers and principals," said Marie Groark, Executive Director of Get Schooled. "Too often their story is told for them. Jason and Adam will give them a chance to tell their stories themselves. "I think we have a great opportunity to use the social web in a way that can really benefit the education system in this country," said Pollock. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, MarsBars
Books 2.0: The Future of Books and Publishing
The Future of Publishing
