Re: Interview w/Sarah Pritchard, Univ. librarian, Northwestern U.

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

Then how do you square this prediction with the findings of the 
recent Pew study that blogging is being abandoned by younger 
people in favor of the constricted Facebook (400 characters) and 
text-messaging modes of communication. Blogging, like e-mail, is 
something being left to us older folks, who like to communicate 
at greater lengths. Younger people, evidently, do not like to 
read anything that is very long. How many do you really think are 
going to have the patience to read 300 pages on screen when they 
do not even have the patience to read blog postings?

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-02-04/business/17847215_1_young-adults-online-teens-blogging

Sandy Thatcher



At 10:11 AM -0400 6/14/10, Michael Clarke wrote:
>What is the saying about overestimating the impact of new
>technology in the short term while underestimating the long-term
>impact?
>
>I think we take it as a given that no one finishing primary
>school this year will read anything on paper in college. When
>exactly will we hit the threshold where most reading (excluding,
>I'm sure, a niche of print readers just like we have a niche of
>people who still buy vinyl): 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Who
>knows. But it will not be longer than that. This is not a fad. I
>think we must assume that tablets/readers will be shortly
>
>1. be cheap,
>
>2. have resolution as good as paper (Apple's new iPhone 4 screen
>is there already),
>
>3. be very light light-weight,
>
>4. come with interoperable and annotatable software.
>
>Reading a 300 page monograph on screen will be commonplace
>(insofar as reading of 300 page monographs is commonplace). Will
>there be a few die hard print readers? Sure. And those die-hards
>will no doubt keep the office toner people in business for
>another decade, albeit with smaller margins than they make now.
>
>Michael Clarke
>
>On Jun 11, 2010, at 5:29 PM, Sandy Thatcher wrote:
>
>>  Ah, but will they want to read 300-page monographs on screen? As
>>  an acquiring editor for a university press, I read submitted MSS
>>  electronically now, but i usually only need to read a few
>>  chapters to make my initial assessment.  It would sorely try my
>>  patience to read an entire book-length manuscript on screen. And
>>  we still find that many of the academic reviewers whose opinions
>>  we solicit want a hard copy to read, not just a PDF. Old habits
>>  may die, but they will die hard--and there will probably remain
>>  some diehards who never make the shift!
>>
>>  Sandy Thatcher
>>