2.) Used Google to find Morrison, E. (2011, August 22). Are books dead, and can authors survive? The Guardian. Found it at the Guardian website straight away. Literally, all it took was to copy and past the citation into Google's website. Too easy, Drill Sargent. lol
3a.) Evaluate the level of trustworthiness. Hmmm. This is an article in a professional Journal for Librarians. Are you aware that Librarians are the secret rulers of the world?? Never and I mean NEVER upset a Librarian, for they hold the keys to all the information in the world!! Ok with that being said, this is an article discussing the trend and movement towards e-books as opposed to traditional paper books. The author is a published author of two additional books in his own right, as well as articles in this and other like minded journals. Its dating is 2011, so it is more relevant in terms of timeline. It seems more of an Op-Ed piece, so really you must gauge the level of trust you wish to put in the author and his background to determine his level of expertise. The publication its self does indeed weigh in with some level of trust. See earlier comment on upsetting librarians.
3b.)Morrison's article passes some points of ASPECT verification. The Guardian is a reputable publisher. The footnotes and sources for his points are credible, i.e. Barns and Nobles, the NY Times. However, his information for some points is out of date, as well as this article is out of date: Article written in 2011 using source material from 2010 and 2009. This detracts from the usefulness in my opinion.
4.) Are books dead, and can authors survive? This is the question Ewan Morrison poses in his article. While it helps to remember that the vast majority of writers, contributors and readers of the Guardian are more "left of center," (upping the odds of a biased slant) the information he puts out from his sources is real and viable. Morrison talks about the decline of paper media sales, with the popular trends swinging more to the digital media sources. Newspaper sales are down, bound books sales are down, and the only real increase in paper media sales is in the realm of textbooks! (For some reason, students seem to prefer the actual book in hand rather than the digital textbook opportunities. Can you say "resale?")
Morrison goes on to predict the complete eradication of paper books in the next twenty-five years. admittedly, he reminds us that predictions such as this have happened in the past by sarcastically stating that it was believed the printing press would overthrow Catholicism in the fourteen hundreds and that video would kill the cinema. Obviously, this was not the case.
With sales down, publishing houses are shying away from the big advances, or staying with already established, producing authors rather than taking the chances on budding, emerging new talent. What this foretells for the future is uncertain, but as these prolific authors start to fall off, or for whatever reason no longer churn out bestsellers left and right, new and exciting stories will fade away. This by its self is disastrous.
There is another area where books are still attractive in the printed format: children's books. Studies show that with a strong childhood grounding in hand held books, pages a child can turn, students are more successful in their scholastic endevours. If nothing else, I believe this will ensure the continuation of the printed word for generations to come.....
Morrison goes on to predict the complete eradication of paper books in the next twenty-five years. admittedly, he reminds us that predictions such as this have happened in the past by sarcastically stating that it was believed the printing press would overthrow Catholicism in the fourteen hundreds and that video would kill the cinema. Obviously, this was not the case.
With sales down, publishing houses are shying away from the big advances, or staying with already established, producing authors rather than taking the chances on budding, emerging new talent. What this foretells for the future is uncertain, but as these prolific authors start to fall off, or for whatever reason no longer churn out bestsellers left and right, new and exciting stories will fade away. This by its self is disastrous.
There is another area where books are still attractive in the printed format: children's books. Studies show that with a strong childhood grounding in hand held books, pages a child can turn, students are more successful in their scholastic endevours. If nothing else, I believe this will ensure the continuation of the printed word for generations to come.....
