For the DTC handbook, I am working on the senior seminar section with Stratton. I have already written content for my part, which Stratton and I divided up equally. My section is on what team you will be on, past projects, and information on the resume and portfolio.

Since I am done with my written content, I will help gather any photos or graphics we might need for my section or any others,  and find graphics and other content to include in our section.

I will be working on the DTC senior seminar section. This section will include writing about what the seminar is, what you do, and the basic general information on how the class works and runs. I will be working on generating text and content alongside Stratton. I will help with web design but mainly will work on collection stuff for Stratton to add to the web design. I think it is good that I am in this section because I am in a seminar and Stratton and I have different roles in the seminar so that will give two very good perspectives. With our experience in the class, we can do a great job of providing first-hand information.

I’m in the “How To” project and our main elements are probably going to be text and images.

With focusing on CSS and design I would really like to see us use visual hierarchy using color. Color draws people in so it is very important to use the right color scheme for the project. It is very important for us to use color in the important information why are trying to produce. This includes highlighting things in potentially yellow or red if it matches.

When looking at Practical Typography I really wanted to look into text formatting and font recommendations that they provided. I think the way the text is laid out is very important for people when reading. Text size, format and layout, and font choice are very important. You don’t want to use a crazy font but also don’t stick with the basic one that everyone is using. For formation, I would like to be in a more F pattern where people read from left to right and top to bottom.

From here my group is going to discuss color and typography, and finalize our text before we really get to work on the design.

My favorite podcast and one of the only podcasts I really like listening to is called “SHE” with Jordan Lee Dooley. I think that she produces really great content specifically towards women and more on the motivational and helpful side. I think the most effective thing about the main theme of the podcast is that Jordan has her “brand” already made from things outside of her podcast, as an author and a woman of faith. The topics really change weekly on her podcast which is really something I enjoy, there is rarely an episode with just her talking. In each episode, she brings in someone to talk on a new topic related to something women are interested in (for example “The Busy Womens Guide to Wellness). And any of the things she talks about solo are still just as good and as relevant to the other ones with guests.

I really like the idea of audio things. Whether that is a podcast, a video blog, or an audiobook. I think that we are always listening to things. I know that I personally cannot stand silence, it makes me nervous and uncomfortable, therefore I am always listing to something. As I’m typing this now I have “Gilmore Girls” running in the back, when I go to sleep I listen to classical panio-type music (yes, like the one babies listen to, to go to sleep), when I workout I listen to music and when I walk or hike I listen to a podcast. I think that because of how busy I am (and because I hate silence) this form of digital publishing is very effective. I think that a podcast is an effective digital publishing format because it is great for on-the-go and listening only. I don’t really sit and listen to podcasts I listen to them when I’m moving and doing something to fill the sound and I think that this make is effective for anyone else who might be like me.

Here is the new link for my EPUB

To me “screen reading is” just reading something on a screen, instead of on a physical piece of paper. “Screen reading” might also be defined as or looked at as a sort of skimming. I think that when people read more on a screen the less information they take in vs when it’s in their physical hand. Kind of like writing. You retain more information when you write stuff down than when you just type it up or copy and paste it.

I think that multimedia, hyperlinks, interactivity, and sharing essentials are part of the way we use texts today. I believe this because it draws more people in on reading on screens. With hyperlinks, it helps provide previous information on other things that might be relevant. Interactivity gives you the ability to learn and read things from a different aspect. I will say I can see and understand how multimedia, hyperlinks, interactivity, and sharing essentials are a distraction. These things can also take us away from the reading where we end up getting distracted and not finishing the book, or getting distracted and thinking the reading was finished when in fact it was not, there were just too many things going on.

From what Hayles has to say in the essays I really like when she brings up the question “How does media stimulation affect the brain?” (192). This really got me thinking about all the ways that media and our exposure to media have affected our day-to-day life. Not only with just digital reading but with everything from social media, to watching shows, and even just texting someone. We all know that technology affects us and our brain function somehow. Hayles goes on to elaborate that “Children growing up in media-rich environments literally have brains wired differently from those of people who did not come to maturity under that condition” (192). As time has gone on and technology has developed children are getting more and more access to technology. But with that technology is really helping them focus and work on things.

“As students move deeper into the mode of hyper attention, educators face a choice: change the students to fit the educational environment or change that environment to fit the students.”

– Katherine Hayles (195)

As I have grown up my reading habits have really changed right alongside my writing habits. With reading, I will say I have never really been “into reading” but when I did read when I was younger it was always like hard copy and book form. But once I started high school to college my reading was really only based on the school. But this is when my writing changed in high school we were given tablets and all of our work was done on that. Teachers didn’t require notebooks anymore, they were recommended but not required anymore. That is when my writing changed and it became mostly digital and less physical.

I think over time my writing has really changed and improved but my reading “level” has probably lowered due to digital reading and multimedia learning.

Books will remain the same as they have these last twenty or so years. While formats have changed from print to large e-books, the widespread love for reading a good novel has remained for centuries. Books have seen some change in the last few decades, with a massive increase in self-publishing starting in print. But in the next 20-30 years I believe a “digital” book will be somewhat the same but with added aspects. With books, I think we need to go back to the roots. As children, we had stories read to us and several of them with images as well. I think in some ways we will end up going back to that but in digital form. As technology grows so does everything with it.

The earliest digital reading device that possibly started it all was created in 1945, by Vannevar Bush. Bush was the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. In 2000 when Blu-Ray discs came out Stephen King offered his book “Riding the Bullet” as a digital-only computer file. Then in 2004, Sony released its Sony Librie e-reader and then its Sony Reader in 2006. But when we hit 2007 the world of reading was changed when Amazon launched the Kindle eBook reader and the launch of the iPhone by Apple. From there Barnes & Noble introduced the Nook in 2009 and several other companies followed along with them. 2010 was the best year for digital books as Apple launched the iPad along with iBooks, selling half a million eBooks in less than a month. Along with that Google’s eBookstore launched and on Amazon, eBook sales outnumbered its hardcover book sales. In 2013, the Association of American Publishers announced that eBooks now accounted for about 20% of all U.S. book sales (“The History of eBooks from 1930’s “Readies” to Today’s GPO eBook Services”.). Bush’s “prognostications” are looked at to be one of the earlier visions of the internet (Borsuk 221).

The future of books can really go anywhere. If you think about how far technology has come in the past few years it will only go further. The future of books for me is hard for me to think about. I just can’t place my finger on where it might go and where it might end up. Maybe they will stay the same or maybe they will change, or maybe there will be something in between or totally different. It could end up as an improved digital book, with sounds and images. Kind of like a story being read aloud but more with sounds to set the tone of the book. It could also end up with images popping up or displaying across the reading screen. It might also be more interactive, where you chose what steps happen along in the story. It could also end up in a VR game/situation, as we’ve talked about in class.

I have always just viewed books as books, and I have never really read or looked at digital books. Digital books have only ever helped and worked for me in school situations. Other than that physical books are my go-to and even then I don’t read now as much as I did a few years ago, so this idea of “digital” books never crossed my mind. While they are becoming easier and accessible, on phones and tables they never really tipped my interest. However, I have recently ended up in audiobooks because of their conveniences as well. That is where I hope and think digital books might end up. 

In chapter three of The Book, the book as idea, makes a good point. “The thing we picture when someone says “book” is an idea as much as an object.” (Borsuk 111). That’s the same idea when someone says “digital” book, it is something that can be read online on a phone, tablet, or laptop. Because of digital books we are now seeing contemporary book publishers trying to embrace and work with the digital world.

“A book… is not an inert thing that exists in advance of interaction, rather it is produced by the activity of each reading. … Thus in thinking of the book, wether literal or virtual, we should paraphrase Heinz von Foerster… and ask “how” a book “does” its particular actions rather than “what” a book “is.” – Johanna Drucker

With that, I looked at and thought more about how a book does its “job” rather than what it is. We all know what a book is but we never really know the book’s job, and I think that depends on what the book is about. There are so many different authors, writing styles, and genres that every book is going to be different, even if they are written by the same author or have the same style the book will always change. I believe a book has done its job if it makes you want more. Whether that includes reading it again, continuing it (like if it is in a series), or reading more books by the author. If you liked the book and want more then that is when I feel it has done its “job”. 

Books have changed just as everything else has. But books will always be an object.

We as humans have developed, as have books, and technology. Since the first iPhone came out there has been a major following for tablets and eBook readers, as I stated at the beginning of this, and that has only grown since then with new editions of devices just as they create new editions of books. “Different technologies of the book exist side by side throughout its history: tablet and scroll, scroll and codex, manuscript and print, paperback and e-book”(Borsuk 3). As an object books have transformed in so many ways. over the years. Along with that so has writing and the alphabet. in 2200 BCE they relied specifically on pictographic writing. In 1700 BCE the alphabet we use today was created (Borsuk 21-23). The Greek “invention” of the alphabet created an easier way for people to read and write. That was the first step in my opinion of creating a book. Without text, a true book isn’t a book, it’s just a picture book. A book needs text in order to be read, processed, and understood. We need to keep in mind what Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier wrote “We should keep in mind that no text exists outside of the physical support that offers it for reading” (Borsuk 28) therefore a book is nothing without its text.

Borsuk makes a really good point by stating that “The book accommodates us, and we accommodate to it.” I think with this he is creating the idea that books are created in several forms (text, e-book, and audiobook) and with those forms, we then accommodate it. We will use what is more convenient for and us based on what we are doing. If we want to read something we will do that whether we read it physically or on a table, or listen to it. The potential that digital books have will only continue to grow.

On July 4th, 1971 there was the first digital online library attempt by a student who typed up The Declaration of Independence, to send to 100 users on a university computer network (Borsuk 213). This student Michael S Hart created Project Gutenberg to make books easily accessible by sharing e-text, which leads to e-books. The process of this includes scanning books page by page to generate the text for the e-book (216).

We have come a long way from where digital books and regular books were created and started and they will only grow from here. the only thing is will it be better or worse for the world we are creating and will physical books still be created or will everything revert to online? As Borsuk says “object, content, idea, and interface, the book changes us as we change it, letter by letter, page by page” (258). Only time will tell how it will really end up in the future.

Sources

Borsuk, Amaranth. “The Book”. The MIT Press, 2018.

“The History of eBooks from 1930’s “Readies” to Today’s GPO eBook Services”. March 2014, https://govbooktalk.gpo.gov/2014/03/10/the-history-of-ebooks-from-1930s-readies-to-todays-gpo-ebook-services/

The Garden of Survival by Algernon Blackwood

Twins may be similar in outward appearance and share genetic material, but the paths they take in life are often markedly divergent. In this book, the two twin brothers’ adventures take them to opposite ends of the earth, though their special bond remains intact.

Ring Once For Death

In this story, a doctor and his wife visit a curio shop that they visited over 20 years ago on their honeymoon. This visit will play a part in their future with mysterious elements.

“The way books are written has changed.
The canvas for books has changed.
The post-published life of a book has changed.”

Craig Mod, a writer and photographer, has a great perspective on post artifacts. There is a summary of the sections 1. The Book, a System 2. Pre-artifact Systems 2a. Examples 3. No Longer Great, nor Immutable Artifact 4. Post-artifact Systems 5. Shifting Expectations

The authors idea of the post artifact system is very interesting.

the post artifact system is a system of unlocking. It is concerned with engamnet, sharing, ownership, and obviously reading. Its basically creates books into the shared system/interface.

Growing up I didn’t really have or use digital technology until i was about 12 and even then I did not really use it. It wasn’t until iPads were brought into the school system that I began doing digital reading and using web as a source of information and entertainment. It was always hard copy of textbooks and actual books. I enjoyed hard copy better when I was younger, but the older I get the easier digital things are for me and for me to comprehend.

I belive digital publishing of books and other things are very helpful in today’s world since just about everyone has a laptop, tablet, or smartphone but occasionally I do love to just read a book in my hand and on paper.

“Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book”

-Stéphane Mallarmé

“The Book, Spiritual Instrument”

Digital publishing is taking over traditional publishing. Digital publishing offers a lot of advantages. It allows publishers to reach readers all over the globe. Digital publishing leads to greater opportunities for them. It is safe to say that digital publishing is the present and the future of publishing.

But the idea of holding an actual book and reading it and processing it vs reading it on a screen just has a different effect. My whole life I have never been much into books, but when I do find one I like a hard physical copy has always been my way to go. I didn’t realize until recently that it makes things easier to have it on my phone, tablet, or laptop to just glance and read whenever I choose.

“The book will not become obsolete with new reading platforms, but rather, will change and develop new incarnations and relationships; it will continue to serve certain kinds of literacy needs and literacy desires – specifically, those related to its book-bound physically and potentiality”

– Jessica Pressman

“The Aesthetic Of Bookisgness In Twenty-First Century Literature”

A book will always be a book, but they way it is taken in wether digitally or physically will create a different effect to the reader/viewer.

The book I have selected as my favorite book is “The People We Keep” by Allison Larkin. This book is about a girl finding her place in the world. It’s about creating a family for yourself when your own family has failed you. It’s about learning to accept the love you never thought you deserved, and it’s worth every gut-wrenching turn along the way. Some of the aspects of this book do relate to me and how life is and some of them do not. I came across this book at the beginning of this year when my aunt recommended it to me. The author does a really great job of writing from her heart about the characters and about giving people the chance. 

Because of the books I typically like and this book, I found to be relatable and easy to understand and read. When I am able to relate to a book I usually end up reading it and liking it more and more. 

Hi everyone I’m looking forward to taking the class and learning more about digital publishing.