Final exam

The Future of Print: The Book

This was not an easy title to find! First, I had to determine what Feliciter was. A bit of searching told me that it’s a publication put out by the Canadian Library Association. I was able to locate the journal by searching the database on the CLA.CA website. Full text versions of all of the issues of this journal are available online. The link to this particular journal is here: http://www.cla.ca/Content/NavigationMenu/Resources/Feliciter/PastIssues/2011/Feliciter5Vol57_w.pdf

Authority- Distad is a librarian at the University of Alberta. He is also the author of a few books. This would make him a good authority on the topic of the future of books.
Sources- Distad draws on some interesting sources for his article. Most are historical references to past perceptions that books would be replaced by some newer technology.
Purpose- Distad is arguing that e-books and readers will not replace the printed book, but will exist along side it.
Coverage- Distad covers the topic, but in a superficial way. He doesn't go into real statistics to back up his claims that books are in no danger.
Timeliness- This article is less than 1 year old, so still very relevant to the topic.

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Are books dead, and can authors survive?

I typed the full title of the article into a Google search. The first result was for the full text Guardian article.

Authority- The article was written by Ewan Morrison, a well-known Scottish author. I believe that would make him an authority on books and the future of books. However this fact can also make his opinions biased.
Sources- Morrison quotes many sources and statistics in this article. He is sure to note where the information that he is using comes from. Some of his sources include Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Wired Magazine, all of whom are reputable sources.
Purpose- Morrison’s purpose with this article is to share statistics about what happens when a particular medium goes digital and to predict the future of the printed book based on those statistics. Evenness- the overall tone of the article seems to be even. 
Coverage- Morrison was very thorough in the coverage of the topic. He even went so far as to touch on the porn industry and the effect the Internet has had on it’s sales over the years.  
Timeliness- The article is less than a year old, it is very timely.
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The Future of Print: The Book

In this article, the author, Merrill Distad, discusses why he feels that the printed book is in no danger of becoming a relic of the past. He draws upon several historical sources to show times when men have feared that the book would be replaced by some new technology. He argues that because this had not come to pass any of those times, it surely will not come to pass now.

He feels that people have such a strong emotional connection to books that they would never be able to let them go. I think he wrong on this point. I think as we become more connected and dependent on technology in the future, we will move away from single use items like books. Why would a person choose to carry boxes and boxes of books, when they can have all of their books with them at once in a device that weighs about a half pound.

He also argues that college students would not want e-books because they could not sell them back at the end of the semester. I would really like to see statistics for this assertion. I disagree with him on this point very strongly. As a college student, I would purchase all of my text books as e-books if that option were available to me and the price was fair. I believe that e-books should cost less than half that of print books because the cost of production and distribution is almost nothing.

Distad does make a very good point about children and literacy however. I would agree that it is vital for development for children to have books at a very young age. But does this exclude e-readers? I can see this going either way. Children today begin using computers as early as 3, an e-reader could be adapted to be usable by a small child. I don't know that there is anything about a book that could not be gained through an e-book.

I think that Distad is correct in that tree books will not be replaced e-books. Not all of them any way. There will always be print books, but e-books will most likely become the way of the future. Portability and convergent technology is the way of the future.