JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Archives


ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Archives

ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Archives


ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Home

ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Home

ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC  November 2011

ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC November 2011

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Re: Academic ebooks

From:

D G Mattichak jr <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Society for The Academic Study of Magic <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sat, 5 Nov 2011 05:22:02 +0000

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (19 lines)

I originally posted the link because I thought that a few of you would be interested but I never expected such a heartfelt response. It's why I keep coming back.

I don't think that kindle uses LCD either but the effect of sitting staring at a screen surely should be looked into- there would seem to be no shortage of subjects to study, hasn't most of mankind been watching TV for fifty or so years?

I actually find that I can read more quickly from a screen- I read almost everything on a 15" laptop screen and I find the convenience of having my huge e-library always just a double click away is great. Most of the material that I have to use for research comes as e-books so I have gotten used to them. I am aware that HDDs can just die and so I have several copies of everything as back up. I find that HDDs have a slightly longer life expectancy than 5 years. This laptop is older than that and it runs pretty much constantly for 18 hours a day. Generally it is the optical drives or the motherboard that give out in PCs.

I have been involved in indie publishing for a while and the smart operators use a combination of e-book and print books. In the industry this is driven by the extra sales opportunities offered by the new medium. The general tone among publishers is that while the big traditional publishing houses are worried printed books are not going to go away. It will only be the people that publish them who will change. Recently Russell Grandinetti, one of Amazon’s top executives, who said;
“The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and reader. Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html
For people that want to write books and get them to others who need them the new POD options is a really cheap and accessible system. It also has the advantage of using less resources as books aren't printed until someone buys them. That has to be more environmentally friendly than even e-books.

I think that scholars should be excited about the opportunities that e-books offer. It takes weeks, if not longer, to produce a print volume. Using a site like Smashwords an e-book can be on the market in hours. For people that just want to share their learning with others this can be a great communication tool. Distributing literature to students could benefit too. It is often possible to extract just what you want to use from a digital document and reformat it into another e-book specially for a course. That would certainly use less resources than photocopying or having every student buy a book to read just a few dozen pages. Not being a scholar myself my insight into how it could be used is limited but I am sure that into the future we will see this medium being used in really creative and productive ways.

At the moment Project Gutenberg is turning public domain books into e-books and by now they have well over a million books online- that's quite a resource even if it is only going to last for 20 years, which I sincerely doubt. Big corporations have a stake in the e-book format now with most of their literature coming in that form. I know this because I write lots of it. PDF, like JPEG is a format that has been designed to last and to be universally useful. I wouldn't consider publishing in print without having at least a PDF version on the market too. I am sure that anyone that has put the effort into writing an academic book wants to be able to reach as many people as they can too.

I have really enjoyed the conversation here. It has been very interesting to hear what you all have to say.

David

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

January 2024
December 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
May 2023
April 2023
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
August 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
January 2020
November 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager