LSC 510: Books to Bytes – Summer 2019 – Dr. Mandel
LSC 510: BOOKS TO BYTES THE BOOK
1: THE BOOK [title info]
As we begin to study the history of the book, it makes sense to begin with a discussion of what a book is.
2: OVERVIEW
[overview of presentation showing an open book]
Despite advances in printing technology, “The printed book as an object has not changed radically since its introduction in the 15th century” as Mosley says on page 152 (2013). That is, “lines of black words are still placed on white paper, arranged in a sequence of pages, and made up into a book that can be placed at a comfortable distance for reading” as continued on pages 152-153.
3: BOOKS [zoom to the open book]
Books existed before printing and they have now superseded printing to exist in fully electronic forms (Juergens, 2003). But at this point, what is a book? Valentine (2012) says on page viii that a book is “portable written communication, writing that is in some format capable of being read and moved.” A book is both the form and the content. And both matter to librarians and information professionals.
4: LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA
[artist’s rendering of the Library at Alexandria]
Librarians have organized and stored books for retrieval and access for thousands of years, and long before the printed book. The library at Alexandria had hundreds of books, and none were printed. Those books were mostly scrolls and were handwritten. Even with the advent of the book form, called the codex, books were still handwritten by scribes. It was not until the mid-15th century that printing books revolutionized information transfer from authors to readers.
5: DEATH OF BOOKS? [painting of monks reading chained books]
The worry about the changing nature of books and possible death of the book is not new, as we can see from Koopman, writing in 1917 and lamenting the book of the day as undesirable in its ugliness and cheapness. He says on page 35 “its great fault is that in Page 1