BookExpo America ran their annual conference a couple of weeks ago in New York City with some interesting, and controversial, presentations and statements. Here's some highlights from various sources. Let's start with some industry eco-footprint stats from Business Week:
- 8.9 pounds of emissions per book. - 30 million trees consumed per year by the industry. - Recycled paper is now used for 13% of book pages.
There was a lot of discussion about increasing the use of recycled paper and cutting back on the number of trees consumed for book and then things shifted to electronic-books (e-books). Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos got some discussion going with a talk about the Kindle but, according to Yahoo News, his talk disappointed many attendees, who had hoped that he would announce some major news, but it did continue the ongoing discussion of the e-future.
Publisher Simon & Schuster did announce they would make thousands of additional titles available on the Kindle, including "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury, who was at the Expo, is quoted in the Yahoo News piece saying "There is no future for e-books because they are not books....... E-books smell like burned fuel."
Also according to Yahoo News, the industry is in transition - new annual releases keep increasing (more than 276,000, according to researchers R.R. Bowker), while the number of books purchased is expected to drop, according to a report by the Book Industry Study Group, an industry-supported organization. In addition, core American Booksellers Association (ABA) membership dropped to 1,524 as of this spring, 56 fewer than the year before, and booksellers filled less than half of the roughly 500 chairs set up for a meeting at the Expo.
I wonder what Guy Montag would have to say about all this!
I've been meaning to weigh my daughters book bags for a while now. I've got a 16 year old in 11th grade and a 12 year old in 7th grade and each lug a stuffed bag back and forth every day to school. Here's the weigh-in results:
11th grader
Book Bag Weight = 28 lbs Her Weight = 105 lbs =============== Book Bag to Weight Ratio (BBWR) = (28 lbs)/(105 lbs) = .267
7th Grader
Book Bag Weight = 24 lbs Her Weight = 75 lbs =============== Book Bag to Weight Ratio (BBWR) = (24 lbs)/(75 lbs) = .32
So my oldest is lugging a little over one-quarter of her weight around in her book bag and my youngest is lugging almost one-third of her weight! In addition they are each commonly carrying one or two other books that won't fit in their bags, adding another 5-10 pounds along with a 5-6 pound violin..... imagine if they each played the tuba........
I'm not sure how you feel about this but to me it is unacceptable. We've tried talking each into roller bags but they are not very popular these days in the middle and high schools..... So - what can we do? Get our kids memberships to a local gym in the summer so they can build up their muscles for the school year? Perhaps chiropractor gift certificates for the holidays?
Sony has a better solution that I'm hoping catches on in the academic community. The Sony Reader is one-half inch thick e-book reader that weighs around 8 ounces. It holds about 80 books worth of content and has a rechargeable battery that lasts approximately 7,500 page turns. It has 64MB of internal memory and an additional memory card slot. The screen is very pleasant on the eyes, using a technology called e Ink® from E Ink Corporation. E Ink uses micro-capsules instead of the glowing LCD cells on computer screens that appear as black or white depending on the charge associated with page content. According to Sony:
"The result is a reading experience that’s similar to paper - high contrast, high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight and at a nearly 180-degree angle, and requiring no power to maintain the image."
It also displays Microsoft Word and PDF documents, blogs, newsfeeds, and JPEGs (just black and white) and plays unsecured MP3 and AAC audio files (like Mike Q and my podcasts!) through an external audio jack.
Here's an interesting video from NY1 News on the Sony Reader.
I've spent some time in the Sony Style Store playing with one and an impressed with the contrast - it has a nice text-on-paper feel that I don't get with other readers that use standard computer screens. It's small when compared to academic textbooks at 6.9” by 4.9” with a 6" screen and would probably not work well for textbooks with lots of illustrations - think biology or physics.
In it's current form factor, I think it would have limited use in the classroom but I'd love to give it a try. Sony appears to be directing marketing towards travelers at this time - I've seen a few ads in airports and airline magazines recently. Right now the cost is $279.99 and comes with 100 book's Classics titles. In addition to Sony, there have been rumors Amazon has their own e-book reader in the works, the result of the purchase of mobipocket.com a couple of years ago.
I'd love to see these kinds of products directed towards the academic market so my kids could both lower their BBWR!
**** Read Show Notes and listen to Mike Q and my latest Podcast titled Micro-blogging linked here. Podcasts also free on iTunes. ****
Thanks for visiting. I'm Gordon, past National Science Foundation Funded Centers of Excellence Director and Co-Director at Springfield Technical Community College and University of Central Florida, past Visiting Engineering Professor at the University of Hartford, currently an Adjunct Computer Science Professor at Pace University and an Adjunct Engineering Professor at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts. I’ve authored four engineering and engineering technology textbooks and have over 40 years of engineering, technology, communications and IT teaching experience. In addition to my teaching and work with NSF Centers of Excellence, I've served as the Verizon Next Step New England telecommunications curriculum leader and on several business and technology boards around the United States including the Microsoft Community College Advisory Council, the Massachusetts Networking and Communications Council and the National Skill Standards Board.
I am one of the co founders of the Hi-Tec Conference that annually brings 500-600 academic, business and industry representatives to explore the convergence of scientific disciplines, engineering and technologies.
In 2001, I was selected as one of the top 15 STEM faculty in the United States by Microsoft and the American Association of Community Colleges and in 2004 was selected as the Massachusetts Network and Communications Council Workforce Leader of the year.
I am also certified by the International Distance Education Certification Center as a Certified Distance Education Instructor.