Reading another essay in Roberto Manguel’s A Reader on Reading, he discusses ebooks in “Saint Augustine’s Computer.” Manguel notes that one of the major changing aspects of books is the idea of books as property. He suggests that the idea of the book as an object of “pure value” (a phrase that belongs to Maurice Blanchot) existed since the days of scrolls but that it wasn’t until the rise of a literate bourgeois class in the 14th century that owning books became a mark of social standing and book production actually became profitable.
Enter the digital age and all the complications it brings up about ownership in addition to the notion of “pure value.” One does not own an ebook but, Manguel asks, does that make an ebook worth less than the same book in print? The text of a book does not stay on the page when we read, nor does the text of an ebook stay on the screen. A text is always, essentially interactive. Reading is not a passive experience, or it shouldn’t be.
Manguel’s concern is not with a book’s format, but how, in these technological times,
will we succeed in still being able to invent, to remember, to learn, to record, to reject, to wonder, to exult, to subvert, to rejoice? By what means will we continue to be creative readers instead of passive viewers?
While Manguel might boil ebook and physical book down to something like, it’s the text and how we read that matters, there are other important things to consider. Like the role of libraries.
There are those in the library world who believe that libraries are screwed. Hellman (the author of the blog at the above link), includes video from a recent presentation by Eli Neiburger at the Library Journal eBook Summit.
In the arguments presented, the reason libraries are screwed is because content is moving away from being ownable and sharable (shades of Manguel’s discussion of pure value). The value of a library’s collection is rooted in the worth of having a local copy, but the internet makes that obsolete when you can get a copy of a book off a server half the world away in less than thirty seconds.
Also a problem is the fact that ebooks are licensed so libraries can’t actually own ebooks and circulate them like they can physical books (fair use copyright law when it comes to ebooks screws us all). Yes, libraries are “lending” ebooks, but they are forced to create an artificial scarcity. There is no reason a digital book cannot be read by more than one person at a time but licensing often will not allow it. So the question becomes, how can libraries survive with this model? Would you willingly wait a year to read a digital copy of a popular book like you might for a physical one?
What are libraries to do? Their current status as a temple for books must change. Neiburger suggests libraries become platforms and publishers, a place/ space where members of the community can be creative and preserve their work. The library should protect and ensure access to unique items of the community that don’t really matter anywhere else.
The prediction is that the decline in library circulation will be slow. The warning is that libraries shouldn’t wait until too late to morph into something else that will still be viable when book circulation bottoms out.
Do I agree with Neiburger and Hellman and, to an extent, Manguel? A little bit. While I love the experience of reading a physical book, I must say I agree with Manguel that it really is about the text. I can be, and have been, just as transported reading an ebook as I have reading physical books. But I still think there is value in physical books. Are libraries screwed? At the moment, when it comes to ebooks, yes, yes they are. Does that mean the library as an institution is screwed? I wouldn’t toll the death knell yet. I think libraries are working hard to meet the needs of their communities and every community needs different things. The libraries that are nimble and don’t fear change will be able to meet their communities’ needs best. The ones who follow business as usual and are slow or afraid to meet the changing needs of their communities might not fair as well. I don’t think it is an all or nothing proposition. Some libraries will survive and thrive and others, sadly, won’t.
We live in interesting times, a curse or a blessing? I imagine those who look into the future will be right about some things and wrong about others. Unfortunately there is no way to know on which visions we should place our bets.
I think Manguel is, of course, right about the most important function of books, which is the text and how we read, which is largely the same in both formats. That said, there are still secondary considerations that are not without importance, such as the licensing shenanigans you mention and the fact that there is such limited lending capability even when one owns an ebook. (It’s not very library-centric, but I usually re-sell the books that I own but don’t need anymore to my local bookstore, which makes paying anything for a virtual book a losing proposition.)
As for libraries, based on the work being done in our system I’d have to agree with you that they’re working hard to support the needs of their communities. I wouldn’t pretend to gaze into the crystal ball for their future though…
And yet on the other side of the coin, here we are trying to preserve the dwindling energy supplies, trying to find alternatives to coal, oil and gas fuel, trying to stay green and trying to improve our sense of community. Libraries and physical books (certainly the ones already in existence) do all of this. To move towards digital completely is so precarious because we live in a world where the lights really can (and one day will) go out. And what happens to all the books already in existence? The library I know best is the University Library at Cambridge and it is full of rare books and manuscripts and just millions of books from people’s special collections, not to mention the ordinary stock. Most of the books are too esoteric for anyone to bother scanning, and yet they’re kept precisely because they are esoteric. Small local libraries may be in trouble if they just stock contemporary fiction and children’s books, but the big libraries are partly open museums for books, and they are not going anywhere soon, surely?
I’ve been amazed at how easily I’ve been able to interact with an e-reader; I simply didn’t think it would be the same as a physical book with pages to turn. What the experience has reinforced for me is that I am actually interacting with the text and it doesn’t matter how that text reaches me. However, I had a conversation about this with a friend only on Wednesday for whom the reading experience is completely bound up with physical awareness of the book in her hands. She is one of the most sensitive readers I know, so there is no question that she isn’t interacting with the text every bit as intimately as I am, but at the same time she could tell me in detail about the actual copy of the Hardy novel we were happily damning which she had read thirty years earlier.
Then I’m also worried, as is Litlove, that there will come a time when the lights will go out and our e-readers will simply not work. What then of books like the latest Hilary Mantel, which are only available in digital format? Will we loose a whole generation of texts. I suppose if the lights go out that may be one of the lesser worries for many, but not for me.
This is such a difficult one.
Emily, I re-sell books I no longer need to own too and then turn around and spend the proceeds to buy more books! Because I can’t own an ebook is one reason I have not bought one, prefering to stick to the thousands of public domain books available. I am glad to hear your library system is doing a good job. Long may it survive!
Litlove, are you going all Mad Max on me?
I think you beautiful Cambridge library is safe. The libraries that are most in danger are the public libraries that don’t necessarily have all those old one-of-a-kind materials. They are the ones that need to find a way to reinvent themselves. Though I am sure that even Cambridge is becoming more digital and looking for was to remain relevant to students and faculty and their research needs so it can remain vital instead of solely a museum for old books.
Annie, hopefully the lights won’t go out but if they do all new books will be in danger since the publishing process has become highly reliant on technology and no one but individuals runs a handpress anymore. But even if the lights don’t go out, items that are solely digital are still in danger as digital preservation has not been perfected yet.
My poor little library is whoafully behind the times as it is. Ebooks? Ha! I’m happy when a hardbound copy, in good shape, of a book I want is on the shelves. Many of the volumes in my local library are…gulp…paperback! Of course, it is part of a much larger system and I can usually get anything I want, but I have to order it on-line and then wait for it to come into my branch – which can take days. I miss the days I when I could walk into a major library and find just about anything. To be fair, I think the library is doing the best with the funds it has.
It’s tough thinking about these things. It makes me nervous and worried, because I don’t like change! I hope libraries do find ways to adapt and to continue to stay relevant and important (and funded). I’m willing to wait for a digital copy of a book, if it’s free. That makes it worth the uncertainty of not knowing when I’ll actually be able to read it. I’m on the waiting list for a couple of ebooks from my library right now, actually.
Does anyone else worry about the money issue as well? While digital versions of many classics are available for free, people still need the hardware to read them on. One of the greatest things public libraries do is provide resources to all members of the community for little or no cost. Even though the prices of e-readers, computers, etc. have gone down over the years, I worry that many people are still priced-out of the trend. I would never want reading to be an activity that is largely available only to those who can afford it.
I think we are beginning to appreciate there are important differences between reading a printed book and its e-book version.
There is far less interaction or engagement with an e-book than a printed book.
Studies have shown that recall of information is greater when your read a printed book than an e-book version.
They also indicate we read more of the text when it is printed than when it appears on a screen. Our eyes pass over the text quite differently even though the words are the same..
A bound volume is more readily accessed if it is on your bookshelf or at a library (they are still around) than it is electronically.
It is also much easier to underline, highlight, place marks and notes on a printed page and then collect them all in a notebook or commonplace book than it is on an e-book “page.” And that’s what engagement is all about.
The physicality of a book is why it is so perfect.
In an essay on this topic Stephen Carter concludes, “We can be certain of one thing: A screen is not the same as a page, and, as the migration continues, the experience of reading will itself be altered. We can anticipate a decline in reflection, the willingness to work hard to understand a point of view, and perhaps the loss of the ability to appreciate the value of ideas”
About seven years ago, I did some postgraduate research that involved a comparative study of online and print newspapers. To cut a long report short, my conclusions favoured the print, by a mile.
This Christmas, I received a Kindle, and I’ve been surprised at how quickly I’ve fallen for it. For the moment, I’m reading books for free, courtesy of Project Gutenberg. And it’s likely to be that way for some time to come. When it comes to paying for a book, I still want to have it on my shelf, with the option of loaning it to a friend, should I want to. I can also read print books by candlelight, for as long as I have candles, if the power fails.
These are very uncertain times–I know my library is doing all it can to stay up on trends yet still remain a thriving and essential place for students and faculty and community users. I cringe every time I see carts of books going out because faculty librarians are weeding–we have no room for growth yet we are still adding thousands of books to our collection every year. And eBooks along with online magazine subscriptions are starting to really dominate in collection development. It’s a little scary for another reason–as our paper materials decrease the people who are needed to process them are not as necessary as well–which would be me! I am trying to learn new skills as certain jobs are probably going to become obsolete. So I see eBooks as good and bad! Lots of things to think about with these changing times.
Must say that I think that there will be a role for librarians (and therefore hopefully for libraries) for a long time yet. The question is whether the funders see that. They can so often be short-sighted and, for example think that Google and eBooks mean that librarians/libraries are no longer needed. The challenge is for librarians to “prove” their role and value – publishing, preservation, training in information literacy and related issues, are all possible roles, not to mention providing access to expensive resources (databases, technical works etc) for which there is still no good model for cheap/free individual access. Interesting days, eh?
I admit I hadn’t even thought about how eBooks would affect libraries. I guess I’m hopeful that people will see the need for libraries regardless of the medium. I still don’t think that books are going away. A good library just does so much for communities – book groups, story times, writer’s groups, on and on and frankly I think we need more stuff like that.
Grad, at least your library is part of a bigger system so that’s something. Perhaps evetually the larger system will offer ebooks, that’s how it works at my public library.
Dorothy, that’s interesting that you say you are willing to wait for a digital copy. I am too. I wonder if the people who toss the “nobody will wait” line have any evidence to back it up or if they are just making assumptions. Hmm…
Mindy, oh yes, I think the majority of folks at publis libraries worry a lot about the “digital divide” at least we do in my library school classes where it comes up quite frequently. Unfortunately, the politicians who allocate funds to libraries don’t seem to think about it as much as they should.
Richard, I agree with you but I also disagree a bit too. Surprised?
I am going to use my husband as an example. Many years ago he tried to read Pride and Prejudice, a book he had never read and didn’t get far. He didn’t like it. Then, several years later, he listened to it as an audiobook done by one of his favorite readers and liked it. Now he is reading the book on the Kindle and is enjoying it even more than he did when he listened to it. Yes, the screen may change the way we read, but I don’t think it has to follow that everyone will become less refective or less willing to work hard.
Martin, isn’t Project Gutenberg a great resource? It is suprisingly easy to read on the Kindle and there are so many free books available. But yes, I still want physical books too. And when the candles go out there will always be the sun. If the sun goes out I think we have bigger issues to worry about
Danielle, oh I feel for you and understand you worry. We elminated our cataloging librarian position a year and a hald ago in favor of purchasing a good deal of the cataloging from vendors. We still have two catalogers but they express definite concern now and then.
whisperinggums, it’s the “Chinese” curse! What have we done to deserve it? I think libraries will be around for a long time too otherwise I wouldn’t be about to embark on a career in librarianship. But it does sometimes feel precarious.
Iliana, yes, a good library does lots for a community and hopefully communities and politicans will realize that and find ways to keep libraries funded ebooks or physical books, come what may.
Thank you for bringing this issue to the forefront. I know and understand so little about the challenges that libraries will face in the future. I can’t imagine libraries not existing and hard for me to imagine them not being full of hard copy, printed books!
Kathleen, there is no telling what the future holds but hopefully libraries will have a prominent place there!
There’s a new huge library being builtin a city near us right now and I honestly can’t wait to see what they’re going to do to make it adapt to challenges. I think a big focus is going to be on making libraries more convenient. For now I can’t borrow books from a library ten minutes from work, because I live in a different county which is about thirty minutes from the library nearest to work. If I could go to the library at lunch instead of having to go home and wait until the weekend to go to the one down the road from my house (because it’s closed by the time I leave work) I’d go much more often. The new library is apparently going to allow borrowing from anyone with a West Mids card, maybe even anyone with an English library card. I love hearing about libraries where you can return a book from any library in the county too and self service checkouts.
Pingback: A Reader on Reading | So Many Books
Pingback: Restless Reader » Blog Archive » Literary News & Links – January 3, 2011