For the first time in a couple weeks, we’re not seeing the Monday morning release of some new device or big business merger of old world Publisher and eBook upstart…
So, the Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts Online is offering 200 Islamic manuscripts for scholars to consult and study. Looks like straight scans, and I’m not sure if there’s a text or script equivalent. (Anybody in the know…please let me know…) But there are some very beautiful contributions here that are worth checking out.
Here‘s an article at seekingalpha.com that uses the word “ubiquity” in the title, and well, where do you get that any more? But it also involves a former naysayer joining the eBook Revolution, yah? I think he had an ‘epiphany.’
And here‘s a New York Times article about a bookstore being forced into extinction by the digital age. It’s sad, having grown up with books stores…but I also grew up with a functioning ozone layer, and I’ve learned to live without that. All kidding aside, it might be that technology holds the key to the future for operations like that. When the book printing kiosks become a ubiquitous (I used it…nice!) part of life, they’ll need a home. And there are rare editions, atmosphere and the human touch that shopping online can lack. I think it’s about evolution. I am sure some bookstores will find a way through. It’s too early to count them out.
