The Future of Books - Essay Example

The Future of Books- the Choice is yours Introduction Reading books, the very thought of it can conjure a very cozy picture, where one can view himself sitting comfortably on large, well worn sofa, in a big well stocked library, and leafing through the pages of a book of his choice. Now, if we fast forward the entire setting, to say, 10 years from now, what will we see? Do we still see ourselves in same position, or do we see ourselves sitting in our drawing room with our laptops or palmtops in front, scrolling the mouse up-down while reading the book we want? Hardly a comforting thought for the book lovers, who all might dismiss the entire vision as the mere fancies of a technology and Sci-Fi lover. However, with the rapid advent of technology it may not remain to be a mere whim or a fancy. As we glance around us, we hear about internet libraries that store digitized books, scholarly articles, journals and various other forms of materials, which we can read at the press of a button. Just a quick browse through Google Books or Google Scholar, will open up an entire world that consists of hundreds and thousands of books, all digitized and stored within the realms of a virtual library, ready to open up at just a click. This article will examine the future of books as they may appear in, say about 10 years down the line. It will examine the possibilities that may change the entire perspective of reading books, and the concept of libraries, which we see around us today. It will also try to find out whether the books that we see around us will really disappear, and then reappear in a new digitized avatar within a virtual library. Body Today we stand at a crossroad in terms of reading books or going to libraries. We do not know what turn we may take in the near future. “We live at a threshold moment in the history of libraries and the forms of knowledge they imply- a moment comparable to that of early antiquity when the clay tablets of the pre-Christian era were replaced by papyrus rolls, or when these rolls gave way, in the fourth century A.D., to parchment leaves bound in codex…”(Bloch and Hesse, 1). From here, it is pretty interesting to anticipate what might be the future of books. To find out what the future may look like actually, we will have to take a look at the various technological innovations that are promising/ threatening to change the scenario of book printing or reading. The best way to start is to look at the internet library that Google is creating. “Googles contract with one university library, Berkeleys, stipulates that it must digitise 3,000 books a day. The minimum for the other 12 universities involved may be lower, but the rate for participating publishers is higher. So a conservative estimate has Google digitising at least 10m books a year. The total number of titles in existence is estimated to be about 65m” (The Economist, 2007). Mindboggling figures, that seem to take our breath away. It is almost as if the dreams of a Sci-Fi lover are indeed coming true, and the figures don’t just stop at Google. Books are being digitized by Amazon, the Internet Archive, Microsoft and Yahoo, and also by some publishers who do not wish to remain behind in the race. So Google has started a revolution, where we are seeing the creation of a huge internet library which is virtual in nature, and has a collection of books, some of which are rare and already out of print. The best part of the whole plan is that, this library is mostly accessible to all, from anywhere in the world, just at the click of the mouse. So “Would we not prefer a world in which this immense corpus of digitized books is accessible, even at a high price, to one in which it did not exist?” (Darnton, 3). As books get digitized by the hour, many questions arise in the minds of those who are curious as to what the future holds for us in terms of books, and especially those who love to read books. So we ask ourselves as to, whether books can be physically read in the future? Or will they go the music album way, stored in CD’s DVD’s or USB-hard discs? Will all these change the way we read books today? As we explore we find that electronic books do exist. It is known as the ‘Sony reader’, an electronic gadget, that assists in reading books, while one can download up to 12000 books from the internet through Sony’s network. However this book reading gadget has not made much impact in the physical form of books, which are still very much in vogue. The main stumbling block to the whole concept is that, for a common layman while it is very easy to transfer music CD’s into iPods, it is practically impossible to transfer old books into the e-book form. So for the time being, the physical forms of books appear to the least affected by the recent onslaught of digitalized books. If we take a closer look we will find that the books that will be affected mostly, and will be available only online, are those which are not read completely by their readers. Books like the non-fiction types, comics, encyclopedias, and directories, will be in all probability, found only on the net, and their printing stopped altogether. In fact, it would make much sense to do so, as it would involve less wastage of paper, time, labor and money. Wikipedia, a non-profit organization, has already replaced the book form of encyclopedia to some extent. Digitalizing books has a lot advantages. It is of tremendous help to the research scholars, who will have all primary and secondary sources right in front of them. There will be no need to physically go a library, hunt through various catalogues, locate the required book, prepare or write down notes from it or photo copy the necessary pages. All will be available to the student at just the click of the mouse. The best part of the whole thing would be that knowledge would be made available to all and sundry. Enlightenment in the truest sense would then become a reality, and not remain a mere philosophical thought. There are almost negligible chances that fiction books will disappear forever. They will remain as we see them today, in print form. However other options in the form of a digitized version will also be present to make it available to all people worldwide. Thus “books will still exist as we know them now, but in the future there will be a whole host of new alternatives in terms of what we read and how we read it” (Watson, 107). So, if we look at the future we will find that there will be options for reading books, and one can choose the way he wants to read it. What will drastically change will be the libraries that we see today. Already we are seeing certain differences. In a library, manual cataloguing in cards or books have been mostly being done away with, and computer records about the available books are fast replacing them. Soon each library table in the near future will also hold laptops or desktops for their members to read books online, if they so wish. Conclusion The future of books holds a very novel and interesting concept. As virtual libraries increase their collection and better their stock by the day, it makes knowledge available to all, especially for those people who do not have access to reading libraries. What Google had started by digitalizing books to create the largest virtual library, is nothing less than a revolution, in the field of technology and knowledge sharing. However, as we have discussed in the article, printed books will never go out of fashion and will co-exist with online e-books. So, it will ultimately be the reader’s choice, as to whether he wants to read his book while sitting on his favorite sofa and leafing through the pages, or he wants to read it online at the click of the mouse. Works Cited Bloch, H and Hesse, C. Future Libraries. California: University of California Press, 1995. Print. Darnton, R. Google and the Future of Books. The New York Review of Books. 26 March 2009. Web. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/feb/12/google-the-future-of-books/?page=3 The Economist. The future of books. Global Technology Forum. 23 March 2007. Web. http://globaltechforum.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=rich_story&channelid=5&categoryid=15&doc_id=10370 Watson, R. Future files: 5 trends that will shape the next 50 years. Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2008. Print. Read More