Went to the British Library exhibition called the Future of the Book. I have not, as a rule, gone to many exhibitions in museums, libraries, galleries. I think that I associate these type of experiences with school and “having” to be there. I love art, literature, plays etc, but I just feel a bit stressed out and hemmed in when I’m in formal environments.
But this was an opportunity to try out three e-readers, including the iLiad which allows users to annotate the texts. I was quite excited by this, as all my books are covered with my scrawlings.
The press release described the exhibition as follows: “Situated on the 1st floor of the Library’s flagship building at St Pancras, the e-reader display will give visitors the chance to familiarise themselves with these new devices and to freely explore the possible recreational and research benefits of the e-book revolution.”
Please bear in mind that I got up early on a Saturday morning for this, again another rare occurence.
On arrival I found that there was a tiny table in the corridor on the first floor. One e-reader sat on the table, broken. The other two were missing, apparently removed because they too were broken.
I hope that the Future of the Book is looking brighter than this exhibition at the BL!
3 responses so far ↓
Dancing dads at LoveBox « westendgirl // July 20, 2009 at 9:30 pm |
[...] ← The farce of feminism The future of the book is looking grim [...]
slgreatsuccess // July 20, 2009 at 10:20 pm |
Nope – don’t buy it – the idea that real honest to goodness books are on their way out! E-books and electronic reading devices serve their purposes at times, but that is all – at times.
westendgirl // July 26, 2009 at 11:32 am |
I’m not sure… I am a massive fan of printed books and can’t really contemplate using an e-reader at the moment. Having said that there is something very appealing about being able to carry around one device rather than lots of heavy books. If the user experience of the e-reader is improved, and they can be as comfortable to read as a standard book, then I may be won over. And there is so much potential for a wider, more immersive experience with e-readers – audio, interactivity etc.