Information Technology Reference
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generally impacted little on the general public, for whom oral
transmission (perhaps now called social networking) was the norm for
conveying knowledge and gossip. With the introduction of movable
type, these access limitations were overcome quantitatively, although it
was probably not until the second half of the 19th century that the
mass of the reading public and the print world significantly coincided.
By the 19th century, books were no longer individually crafted works of
art, but products of industry in a variety of formats (Battles, 2009).
E-books, by which one means the text rather than the device, are
another significant variant in the evolution of book publishing and
distribution. As Siracusa (2009) contends, an issue 'is right there in the
name: e-
book
. In the print world, the word “book” is used to refer to
both the content and the medium. In the digital realm, “e-book” refers
to the content only - or rather, that's the intention. Unfortunately, the
conflation of these two concepts in the nomenclature of print naturally
carries over to the digital terminology, much to the confusion of all.' For
the purpose of this chapter, e-book means 'born digital'.
In one sense, it could be said the historical print world focused on a
process in which the final product went through a series of sequential
stages to reach the final text. Now the immediacy of the internet
provides a myriad of different knowledge distribution paths. We are
moving from a world of review then publish, to publish then review for
many outside controlled, scholarly environments.
However, if one were now able to establish
de novo
the production and
distribution of academic knowledge in the digital era, it is unlikely that
the present publishing formats would result. Not only have the internet
and the rise of associated outlets broadened the geographic scope of
scholarly communication beyond that of the print environment, but
new mechanisms of social dialogue, such as blogs and Open Access
(OA) frameworks, have emerged.
Reading the change?
New methods of textual output and sharing have an impact on modes
of transmission and attention. Social networking tools such as Twitter,
Blogger, Facebook and YouTube are allegedly impacting on attention
spans, particularly of Generation Y, and resulting in lack of appreciation
of book formats and lengthy texts. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, has
