I've been reading several articles on digital-this and e-book-that...the latest is an article by Jeffery Young in the Chronicle on professors building their own textbooks. In some ways it's wonderful because they would be able to mix-n-match chapters of books and have them assembled as either an actual print book or as an e-book for students.
CAVEAT #1: This is going to make buying used books a thing of the past for students.
CAVEAT #2: Professors won't be able to mix-n-match from competitor sites.
However, e-books can be more affordable. I know the e-version of my course text was much cheaper as an e-book than a print book. I have been learning that some of the e-books offer a limited number of views and that is concerning to me. If I buy an e-book, I want to 'own' that book in my collection, not 'rent' it!
The other BIG and LOOMING question I have is:
What does this mean for the future librarian?
I'm not exactly a Luddite, but it does make me wonder what a library is going to look like in 10 years. Fortunately, I know I want to work with faculty on online course design and distance education students. I want to bring my ID background into play. That will mean a focus on technology. Through my intern experience with Jackson's Distance Ed librarian, I have learned that a great deal of what I would be doing would involve technology. And a distance librarian, as far as I can tell, does not have a collection of books to manage like other areas of the library. There is more technology and tech tools management than actual printed documents.
However, it does make me pause and think how students are going to decipher who-wrote-what and is that really want we want to be doing - creating compilations of books rather than having them read the actual book? I know professors have been doing this for years - hello course reserves! - however, I'm not sure I like the "McDonald's effect" when it comes to learning. Hopefully, professors will still be requiring at least 1 complete text that relates to the course theme and then uses the e-book compilations as resource reading. I hope...
Some other readings about digitization & future library thinking can be found here:
The Librarian's Crystal Ball - this is definitely a must read for those academic librarians out there
Libraries of the Future
Chronicle's review of The Limits of Digital Libraries based on The New Yorker's actual article, "Future Reading: Digitization and Its Discontents"
Chronicle's review of The Limits of Digital Libraries based on The New Yorker's actual article, "Future Reading: Digitization and Its Discontents"
Happy Reading...and Cheers,
A
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