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!
