Final Frontier

I went to Clarks online library to articles and databases to this search. I chose 'Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)' as my database to search through. For the search box I put in "The Future of Print" in TI Title and the second result was what I was looking for. There's a PDF of the full text available to download.

I used Gigablast.com for the open web search. In the search I put in: "ewan morrison" AND "Are books dead" I received 26 results with the search. The first link gave me the page I was looking for because it was from the guardians website.

Authority - Ewan Morrison has good credentials as he has written 3 novels and many short stories. He has won many awards. Merril Distad is a co-editor at the University of Alberta. He is an Associate University Libarian, which makes his understanding of books valid in this article.

Sources - Both articles have provided foot notes and cited some sources backing up their points.

Purpose - These were written to inform and educate the public. One article goes about how books are being overtaken by e-books and the other talks about how professional writers will become obsolete. This is directed mainly at readers, which is about everyone.

Evenness - Merril Distads article talks about the good and bad of having a e-book, but favors more towards keeping "tree-books" alive. Ewan Morrisons article talks about how industries are in a financial lost because of digital distribution.

Coverage - This is an expected outcome from society nowadays. People are more seduced with the e-books so then social media will write about it.

Timeliness - The dates of the articles are in 2011 and is just a year old. These topics are still being disgusted with both  types still valuable.

In Merrill Distad's, The Future of Print: The Book, he points out that even though digital media is a growing trend, it will not replace physical books. He tells of examples of how writers have predicted a future of a "paperless society". The writer went on to say that there would be a virtual library with "holographic images of book spines projected on reading room walls". These predictions were not that far off compared to todays technology; we are still working on holograms.

In this articles he makes some good points on why "the tree-book" will not be obsolete. First off he list examples of some past technologies that are still in use today. He pointed out that it was said the "telephone would replace the electric telegraph, like the electric telegraph would replace a semaphore telegraph". Which he stated that it didn't. Another example is that it was said radios would replace telephones and tv's would replace radios, and of course it didn't. However, cell phones act like radios, can stream tv, and have cameras on them.

So with the e-books, they a lot of upside to them for readers. Like being able to download thousands of books to a single device at any time. The virtual library is growing every year and you can get your favorites. They have made the font styles on the e-readers to replicate a physical book. However, not everything is perfect for these e-readers. These are electrical devices and will always need power. Like a cell phone, if you have used it for most the day and aren't near a power outlet, your device will be out of power. So that will make you more cautious of when and how long to read. Another thing is you can't really share an e-reader like a physical book, because all your books will be in that e-reader if you lend it out, so what if you wanted to read something?

There is room for both to co-exist. E-readers will be the wave of the future but it doesn't mean physical books need no longer exist. There is still a need for books for the younger generation. To have kids read at a  young age is ideal for them to have a better life. Even pop up books or coloring books can help them started very young. As the author says, "the future of the printed book rests in the hands of todays children".

These points that Merril Distad makes are why I believe there will still be a future with books. Regardless of how it is published, there will be room for hard copies.