Is The Printed Book Dead?

[Carlton Martz <cmartz@EEE.ORG>]

I wrote the following for my library newsletter and thought it might be of
interest to the group.
Carl Martz
Librarian, Yucaipa High School
Yucaipa, CA
cmartz@eee.org

IS THE PRINTED BOOK DEAD?

Thomas Curwen, deputy editor of the *Los Angeles Times Book Review,*
recently shocked a roomful of California school librarians by announcing
that the book as we know it is dead.  Curwen described a visit he had made
a few weeks earlier to the New York City Public Library.  As he surveyed
the vast main reading room, Curwen noted that almost everyone was seated in
front of one of the newly installed computer terminals with Internet
access.  The library tables, where in previous times hundreds of
individuals would be reading books, were almost empty.  Curwen then went on
to discuss the marvels of the newly developed electronic book, the e-book.
For example, Stephen King experimentally released his latest story, "Riding
the Bullet," on the Internet for downloading on computers and e-book
devices.  This is a glimpse of the future, Curwen said.  Gutenberg is dead.
Long live the e-book!

Well, I think the future of reading is a bit more complicated than Curwen
implies.  The e-book, like the printed book, is simply a means to deliver a
story or information.  The key question is whether the development of the
e-book automatically means that printed books are outdated, useless, and
should be abandoned to the ash can of history.  There is no question that
e-books offer some definite advantages.  Electronic books can be
"published" almost instantly and are searchable, linkable, multimedia
friendly, and need never go "out of print."  But, Curwen and technology
enthusiasts confuse function with innovation.  Just because the elevator
was invented did not mean that stairways disappeared.  Both have their
efficiencies and place in the modern world.  So, I argue, do the printed
book and the e-book.

Paul Gilster in his 1997 (printed) book, *Digital Literacy,* clearly
distinguishes between reading a printed book and its new-born electronic
siblings:

   Make no mistake, the real and the virtual libraries require two different
   kinds of reading.  The real [printed] book can be opened wherever we
   choose and leafed through; the computer [or e-book] screen, like the
   older papyrus. . . can only be scrolled, unless we choose to search
   it. . . . One promotes traditional reading, a lengthy and leisurely
   pursuit.  The other promotes scholarly, targeted, precise searching,
   homing in or specific knowledge.

Up to this point, there have been two major kinds of reading that children
must master in order to become fluent readers.  Starting out with picture,
easy, and chapter story books, children first learn narrative reading.
This is reading a story in a lineal way.  In the upper elementary grades,
children must master another type of reading: reading for information.
This is textbook reading, which is quite a bit different than reading a
fictional story, biography, or other narrative non-fiction.  It is this
kind of reading, reading for information, that will undoubtedly become the
special niche of e-books and the like.  I fully expect that by the time
they reach high school, today's primary school children will be routinely
assigned inexpensive portable e-book devices downloaded with their course
"textbooks."  These electronic books will be cheaper, more accessible to
readers of different abilities, and more current than today's increasingly
expensive and weighty textbooks.

Where does this leave the paper printed book?  Its special niche will be
narrative reading: novels, poetry, biography, and non-fiction that call for
the reader to follow a plot, thread of thought, or argument.  In this kind
of reading, hyperlinks, searchability, and dazzling multimedia are
certainly possible but are also distracting.  My point through all of this
is that, like the elevator and the stairs, books in print and in e-book
formats will both find their niches in life, and our lives will be all the
richer for it.  Quoting again from Paul Gilster's *Digital Literacy*: "As
the two delivery mechanisms develop in parallel but distinct tracks, those
who predict a paperless future are doomed to disappointment, but so too are
their technophobic counterparts."

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