One of my favourite CBC Radio shows, Ideas, has posted a podcast on the future of the book. It’s a round table discussion with perspectives from publishers, editors, and writers with, of course, a decidedly Canadian outlook.
Ideas host Paul Kennedy moderates a panel from the 2010Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal. Two publishers (Yvonne Hunter from Penguin Canada and Kim McArthur from McArthur Books) and an academic/author/blogger (Andrew Piper from McGill) discuss the uncertain future of an endangered species. [Listen here.]
This episode is a really good cross-section of the issues around the evolving world of eBooks, print books, and the push and pull between them.
A few things have got me to thinking.
I’m intrigued by the notion of moving from an ownership culture to a licence culture. Considering the amount of proprietary software libraries need to use and share eResources, this is a real issue.
Also, I was reminded of my simmering anxiety about the googlespiracy(or applespiracy), and it’s access to our information practices. eBooks pose really interesting challenges to reader privacy, challenges that don’t necessarily exist with print books.
Some good points about libraries as hubs vs. repositories are raised, too. I like this issue because it brings into the focus different library models and how they reflect the communities they service. Can a library be both in this age of specialisation?
All fun things I’m going to be commenting more on in the future. Promise.
No comments