Thanks, Lisa for introducing a more ruminative subject to the list. It's
become rather frantic about Best Value and such recently.
In 1937, the committee of Worcester City Library were considering whether to
put one of these new-fangled televisions in the library, as a sort of social
inclusion policy. They decided that once they saw this marvellous device,
the children would no longer read books, so they wouldn't have one. When
they thought about it again in 1953, for the coronation, they said that
there was a policy already, and they still wouldn't have one. We have one
now for Teletext, but we don't let the children watch programmes...might
stop them reading the books! Children today watch television and videos and
computer games (and things I see them buying from Argos but I don't know
what they are) but the same children as ever read books and we need to get
more of them to do it, don't we?
Children yesterday were reading Roald Dahl, today Harry Potter, tomorrow
that Lemony Snicket person. They might be using electronic books for school
work, although the market in selling cheap curriculum books through schools
to parents seems to be booming at present. But they will read books. Adults
too: even the textbooks are made available as e-books chapter by chapter,
and students print them out before they read them.
Books are commodities, too. I see many people buy them because they look
nice in the shop, because they went shopping and decided they ought to buy
something, because they know their mother-in-law likes Joanne Harris.
My prediction is that there will be a boom in both electronic media and
print media. I have heard you can get televisions with more than four
channels now. Must get one of those for the library.
John Stafford
Senior Librarian
Worcester Library
Foregate Street
Worcester
WR1 1DT
01905 765317
Fax 01905 726664
email [log in to unmask]
http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/libraries
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lisa Monk [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 2:31 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: The future of the book?
>
> Hi,
>
> Although I'm currently working in an academic library I would like to know
> what colleagues working in the public sector feel about this subject?
> Apologies if I'm opening up an old chestnut here...
>
> Do you think there is there a future for books or will electronic media
> take
> over in the years to come? How is this affecting you now and how can you
> see
> it developing the future? Do you think it will have an impact on
> children's
> reading habits? What will children be reading in the future?
>
> Any ideas or thoughts?....
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lisa
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