Imagination & Digitisation

Media Futures Conference

Chris Meade

if:bookThe Future of the Book

What is a book?

“sadly there are thousands… (of) schools where the library is still a few shelves in a corridor, where books are a low priority, where head teachers believe that all a love of books can do, is better done by a computer. It should never be a case of either, or. We need both: IT and a great library.”

- Michael Morpurgo, Times Online, Jan 2009

What is a library The laptop is the access point to an amazing free library

How to promote creative reading

skills for the digital age?

It’s not a matter of page versus screen.

What is if:book A think and do tank exploring the future

of the book as our culture moves from printed page to networked screen

…and the potential of new media

for creative readers and writers

Who am I??

> Public libraries as Imagination Service

> Your local point of access to culture

> Helping poetry thrive in Britain today

Poetry Places Bringing Books and People together.. Bookstart…Everybody Writes… THEN… Creative Writing & New Media

What is a library?

A public private space A breathing space An imagination service

A special place from which to view the web.

What is a book?This year’s iPod moment:A book is an experience A container of culture A conversation A bounded entity A constantly changing form - from papyrus to Codex to paperback and beyond

Is reading dying?

One third of UK don’t ‘do’ books Readers online don’t concentrate But the web still relies on reading and writing Young people want stories, ideas, information - no

problem with books They like the ‘look and feel’ too NEED HELP navigating their way

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Creative Reading & WritingWe can all publish ourselvesWe can all respond to what we read

But do young people Read in a new way?

“Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind” - Mark Bauerlein

Chronicle of Higher Education in the US: http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i04/04b01001.htm

"When Jakob Nielsen, a Web researcher, tested 232 people for how they read pages on screens, a curious disposition emerged. "We should accept that the Web is too fast-paced for big-picture learning. No problem; we have other media, and each has its strengths. At the same time, the Web is perfect for narrow, just-in-time learning of information nuggets — so long as the learner already has the conceptual framework in place to make sense of the facts.""

New Ways with Words

Blogosphere Fanfiction Alternate Reality Games Wikinovels New Media Writing…

- all need to be on the library map

Some e-writers Cory Doctorow Naomi Alderman Perplex City Kate Pullinger - www.inanimatealice.com Tim Wrightwww.onlinecaroline.comDreaming Methodswww.dreamingmethods.com

Some e-readersKindleSony Reader iPhoneNintendoAny phoneAny laptop

The colourede-inked flexi-pageCometh!

The web of words But for how much longer?

Youtube replacing Google for search?

e-readers

How do we help

Young people

Read in

New Ways?

Experiments in Reading http://futureofthebook.org.uk/blake/book.html www.songsofimaginationanddigitisation.net www.thegoldennotebook.org www.futureofthebook.org/blog www.bookfutures.blogspot.com www.motfothotbook.net

Library of the Future of the Book

Digital imagination -

Showing what’s on offer

Taking care of

what really

matters

School Library of the Future? E-Reading groups Find of the week Displays of different reading platforms