New Yorker iPad Article Comments

As I do most every week, I was reading my New Yorker magazine this week. On page 24 of this week’s issue, there is an article titled Publish or Perish by Ken Auletta which was very interesting. Before I get into my comments on this article, though, please allow me to ask this question:

Why aren’t more librarians writing and thinking about the implications of the iPad (and to a lesser degree the Kindle and the Nook) on the primary form of information consumption today: reading?

If you have some clue as to why not a whole lot has been written, let me hear from you in the comments.

Anyhow, back to the article.

The article examines the background of ebook publishing, and why the iPad caused such a stir - not just because of what it represented, but that it presented a real form of competition by the then-dominant Kindle. Though interesting, I am not discussing this part of the article either. What I am discussing, though, is a quote from David Rosenthal, who says that his company (Simon & Schuster) is working on efforts to

... embed audio and video and other value-added features in e-books. It could be an author discussing his book, or a clip from a movie that touches on the book’s topic.

Are these “value-added” features, as Mr. Rosenthal describes them, really going to transform our reading, and represent the next big thing in media consumption?

I say no.

I say no because the adding of a few videos is simply too pedestrian for what we are witnessing now. Readers must be able to interact with their information - be it an e-book, or a website. The iPad provides a medium for some form of interaction beyond pressing the play button on a video. As I referenced in a previous post, the Alice in Wonderland app for the iPad is just a early, but good example of this. If you would like another example, take a look at this example, and keep in mind the implications of this not only for leisure reading, but for education as well:








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHiEqf5wb3g









So, to be fair, it is not the “real thing,” but I think you would be inclined to agree with me that it is a far sight better than a video of an author discussing his (or her) book. Also, think of the implications for education - not only would the content be more engaging, the updates (that so frequently happen, and cost schools millions) to those texts could be “pushed” out to the devices on which the students view and use their textbooks.

And by no means is the iPad all of a sudden the ultimate expression of the future of reading. What we see in the iPad is one in a very long sequence of steps as makers of technology and publishers experiment to see what this new digital reading world is like, and what we as readers want from this new paradigm. The article hits on one - better prices! Hardcover books new at a traditional bookstore are outrageously expensive, and some better pricing must be developed in order to allow people to purchase the books they want. Digital books are by their very nature cheaper. The article says this:

No matter where consumers buy books, their belief that electronic media should cost less - that something you can’t hold simply isn’t worth as much money - will exert a powerful force.

Exactly. However, in the case of these dynamic books, like Alice or Elements, people are willing (I think) to pay more money. More “bang for your buck,” so to speak.

Thus far as I feel you have noted, intrepid reader, I have been talking about people buying these “books” for their own personal use. What about libraries?

Well, I was reading this post over at the LibraryThing blog and came across Tim Spalding’s thoughts on the in-store reading privileges for Nook owners:

What works for Barnes and Noble could also work for libraries. Indeed, since every Barnes and Noble has suddenly turned into a limitless library, real libraries risk losing a core value to a mere bookstore.

Fortunately, the change to a "Brigadoon Library" would be gentle. Libraries are already accustomed to in-library database access. This would be an extension of an established concept--very helpful in selling new ideas to institutions that are too often hostile to them. And it should be easy to set up--just submit your wifi's IP address to an ereader's website and you're good to go.

Best of all, this is a library solution that makes sense to publishers and could therefore actually happen.(4) Publishers signed on with Barnes and Noble because they calculated that the sales they lost from free reading would be more than offset by the sales they gained from people who bought the book after tiring of the physical limitation--and by the extra word of mouth.(5) With libraries, the publisher incentive is less, but still significant. Readers cannot turn from an ereader to buy a physical copy, as they could at a Barnes and Noble store. But, as at a store, they can buy the ebook. There's no reason publishers wouldn't provide such a service for free, or, more probably, a low cost.(6)

So, Tim Spalding points out that you might set up some similar service in libraries - when you are in the library, you can use the e-books. Of course, we will see some form of better DRM type rules for e-books in libraries, so that one might check them out, but e-books are at such an early stage at this point that there is really no need to make standardizations to the formats and agreements. Yet.

That is why the ALA needs to get involved in e-books in a major way, and right now. Librarians need to start advocating for their libraries (as I have, in my own small way) to ensure that people’s right to the information they seek is not infringed upon.

As always, let me hear your thoughts, etc. in the comments!