Book production processes are becoming increasingly digital, even when the final output is a traditional printed book on paper. This book uses the term “potent” to describe the mix of technologies now available to publishers, and it describes their use in detail. There are chapters on digital technology, but more interestingly for information managers, and posing a much greater challenge to the publishers, are the thoughts given here to the commercial and cultural drivers that may work with the new technologies to change completely the world of books and reading.
The more obvious chapters focus on the changes in technology that have created the possibility of completely digital book production. Readers who have never worked in a traditional printing environment, and even those like me who have some experience, need reminding of the recent history of printing such as the change from letterpress to offset litho. That's because people don't forget the past, they use it to understand the future, and a publisher or printer is likely to see (to some extent) the digital future in terms of the letterpress past. Some of the chapters on the technology of digital printing seem to cover the same territory, but I especially enjoyed the chapter by Kalantzis on digital design because it emphasises the important of really good graphic design in a world where anyone with Dreamweaver can think they are suddenly a “designer”.
What this book demands of its readers is to think hard about the very nature of “the book”. It is obvious that books no longer need to be printed on to paper, but publishers can learn how to cope with that. What gets much harder to comprehend for all concerned is that books no longer need to be purchased; rather, they can be leased, licensed, or hired (select your own term) for a short period of time and then returned to the owner. This means that books no longer need to pass through the chain of wholesalers and retailers to reach the consumer. They can instead remain on the creator's server while customers access them at their own time of choosing. This makes publishing appear to be more like a “service” industry than one devoted to creating products. It will take a while for the stakeholders to find optimum business models to work with this new situation, and the chapter by Loi, Burrows, Coburn and Wilkins called “The need for a new mindset” is a very good introduction for those interested in this topic.
The same authors are responsible for one of the other key chapters in this book, certainly for any information managers wishing to investigate how digital books will affect libraries. The last chapter, “The trials of technology” includes descriptions of several trials in Australian libraries of e‐books and e‐book readers. Not all of it sounds optimistic, but it is as well that we know the problems before committing too much investment to the technology.
