Will we ever substitute books and notebooks for e-readers/writer devices??

[thiago1080]

Well guys, thank you for the responses (you can keep going!).

Many of the people who responded and that I talked to, say things like "I just like it" (about paper books), one even cited the smell of the books. These tacit and sometimes, subconcious questions that can barely be verbalized are what intrigues me.

We grew up holding paperbooks and notebooks, we learned it, however; The kids nowadays uses tablets before they talk; Will their generation abandon that love relationship with paper and only than open the space to e-books full potential?? I definitely would drop a tear if I help my kids learn projectile motion with a little help from an interactive figure.

The distraction caused by the eletronic devices is already a reality, as Barty said, is already a reality, maybe there will be tablets with a "school mode", or something, that limits what kids can access.

By the way, my name is Thiago Diniz Miranda Marinelli, I'm a Industrial Engenering student at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. My supervisor is Prof. Adson Eduardo Resende, although he is cool about supervising too much hehee. The porpose of the research I understand is well written in my previously posts and it's a solo initiative, not being a part of a bigger effort. Apart from the academic reasons, I'm also interested in what you guys think.

An (almost) off-topic question: have you ever tried an effective and enjoyable eletronic writing device?

[MGlitch]

I don't have the links handy, but younger generations, teens through twenty somethings, seem to prefer print rather than ebooks. The study I recall best did not specify if they were using eink or tablets.

[KevinP1]

While the ergonomics of printed books may be taxing at times, they don't crash. I doubt non-fiction resources will leave the hard print world for some time. The world of fiction is a different story. Sorry if not on point to the post. Just the other day, I opened a box of slide rules that have not been used for quite some time, but I refuse to compost them. I am confident that they would still do the job-if I could remember how to use one. Maybe it is like riding a bicycle, one can only hope.

[rem736]

i mostly don't buy paper books anymore, but it's an option if it's a collector's item. there are also good reasons to buy reference books in paper format because it is much easier to flip between pages when doing research. other than that, there should be no reason to waste resources used in the production of paper. i don't even use paper for notes such as stickies since i got a device for the exclusive use as an electronic notebook. this device is the sharp wg-n20. the screen is dark and harder to read than e-ink, but it works better in terms of responsiveness and accuracy. whatever i write takes instantly and there are no skips. other than the relatively poor contrast, the only other negative i can see with this device is that it writes using resistive touch. so i could accidentally write on other areas if my finger nail touches that part of the screen, for instance. it would be better if sharp made it to accept input using a wacom style type of stylus. however, i don't know if this option would also have a negative impact on the accuracy and responsiveness of the captured writing.

by the way, the sharp wg-n20 is only available with a japanese interface. there are pictorial icons, so it makes learning to use it a little easier. but there are entire menu items with just japanese characters, which i can't read at all. thankfully, there is an interpretive guide of what each menu item in japanese means.

[HarryHutton]

Thiago,

I like your project!


Ease of refinding information could be a key reason people largely still have a thing for physical books and notebooks.

We can remember information being in a certain book, in a physical location on a bookshelf. Within the book we can roughly place it in terms of thickness, and even at a certain location on a page, based on location on the page or in context with block shapes of other paragraphs.

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by Barty

I'm a tech geek but if I'm a teacher or prof, I'd ban laptops, phones, tablets in my class. Because people inevitably pay more attention to their device than to what's happening, assuming they're even taking notes and not actually checking Facebook or whatever.

When I was in high school, I was one of the few kids who had a computer and a needle printer. I thought it'd be cool to do my papers on the computer and print them out. My teachers would not accept them and insisted on handwritten papers. Today, many teachers seem to refuse handwritten homework and insist on printed or, increasingly, digital documents (submitted online).

I find it fascinating how the world has changed in just a bit over three decades.

[Freeshadow]

To answer the thread question: No.
For evidence look in a shop or kitchen of your choice. Although we have myriads of powered tools (bread cutting machines, kitchen helpers, mixers in the latter; lathes, dremels, bit drivers and God knows what else in the former) there still are the KISS tools:
screwdrivers, wrenches, files, sandpaper, handsaw, chisel, hammer etc. around. Tools which, when they are broken, are literally broken.
Don't know if there is some engineers' catchy phrase for "As long as there is a simple task to complete there always will be simple tools to do it - if for nothing else, than as fallback."
Same goes for reading/writing: a KISS task. Keep data accessible for eyeball perception as simple as possible. Thus books/notepads will remain or rather evolve into another KISS tool rather than be completely replaced by something too much tech depending.
What the next gen of post-dead-tree might be I don't know. Maybe some 3d-printed, extra sturdy yet very thin foil with the "print" being inside and not on it? cleanable? Maybe not as a book but as a scroll (text marker sized and click-mountable on a frame?) Time will tell.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

To answer the thread question: No.
For evidence look in a shop or kitchen of your choice. Although we have myriads of powered tools (bread cutting machines, kitchen helpers, mixers in the latter; lathes, dremels, bit drivers and God knows what else in the former) there still are the KISS tools:
screwdrivers, wrenches, files, sandpaper, handsaw, chisel, hammer etc. around. Tools which, when they are broken, are literally broken.
Don't know if there is some engineers' catchy phrase for "As long as there is a simple task to complete there always will be simple tools to do it - if for nothing else, than as fallback."
Same goes for reading/writing: a KISS task. Keep data accessible for eyeball perception as simple as possible. Thus books/notepads will remain or rather evolve into another KISS tool rather than be completely replaced by something too much tech depending.
What the next gen of post-dead-tree might be I don't know. Maybe some 3d-printed, extra sturdy yet very thin foil with the "print" being inside and not on it? cleanable? Maybe not as a book but as a scroll (text marker sized and click-mountable on a frame?) Time will tell.

The humble screwdriver is an example of a re-purposed tool. It's first use was back in the days of plate armor for knights I understand. Back then very few things were screwed together and the plate armor was one of them. Plate armor reached it's point of being less than useful in battle around 1600 (some 416 yrs ago) with the invention of gunpowder weapons. Back then even things like nails were used for few things (horseshoes being one) as houses were held together via wooden pegs rather than nails. I don't know if the paper book or notebook could be re-purposed in some way in the future but I don't see them vanishing any time soon. People still like to write things down (especially some authors while brainstorming) and of course as others have said not all books translate well to ebook formats. A set of encyclopedias for example wouldn't do well as ebooks due to the size of the file. Nor I think would most reference materials. Fiction yes, but non-fiction no.

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by crich70

.. not all books translate well to ebook formats. A set of encyclopedias for example wouldn't do well as ebooks due to the size of the file. Nor I think would most reference materials. Fiction yes, but non-fiction no.

I feel that reference materials are particularly suitable for digital formats, though not the barely formatted text files that are currently still very common. But better formats exist, and being able to search, annotate, access embedded media (videos, audio, etc.), cross-reference painlessly, etc. are all huge benefits for educational and other non-fiction resources.

This form of "enhanced" books is, I think, the real advantage of digital books. It's not not well realized so far, and so if I buy something as large as, say, a bible, I typically only get the advantage of the e-book needing little physical space, having a rudimentary search function, and offering a way of adjusting the font size (which is actually quite a substantial advantage). E-books are still in the childhood stage.

Encyclopedias probably work better as hypertext-based media (like Wikipedia) and databases than they do as books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Mivo

Encyclopedias probably work better as hypertext-based media (like Wikipedia) and databases than they do as books.

Definitely. I have a "Britannica" subscription, and it's way, way easier to find information on their web site than in the printed edition, although you can't beat the printed version for just sitting down and reading.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by crich70

The humble screwdriver is an example of a re-purposed tool. It's first use was back in the days of plate armor for knights I understand. Back then very few things were screwed together and the plate armor was one of them. Plate armor reached it's point of being less than useful in battle around 1600 (some 416 yrs ago) with the invention of gunpowder weapons. Back then even things like nails were used for few things (horseshoes being one) as houses were held together via wooden pegs rather than nails. I don't know if the paper book or notebook could be re-purposed in some way in the future but I don't see them vanishing any time soon. People still like to write things down (especially some authors while brainstorming) and of course as others have said not all books translate well to ebook formats. A set of encyclopedias for example wouldn't do well as ebooks due to the size of the file. Nor I think would most reference materials. Fiction yes, but non-fiction no.

Best example of a book not translating to ebook would be cross stitch patterns.
Printable pdfs are ok, but mobi or e-pub not so much.
Some small patterns are ok but anything over 100 by 100 squares gets hard to follow in an e book.
Or a pattern with say 10 different shades of brown.
I make working copies of my cross stitch patterns. Perfectly legal as long as I don't sell the copies. Though by the time I am done with the working copy, it is useless as a pattern.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by crich70

A set of encyclopedias for example wouldn't do well as ebooks due to the size of the file.

I actually had to check what year you made that post.
You DO realize that print encyclopedias have been almost entirely replaced by electronic versions, right?

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by Mivo

This form of "enhanced" books is, I think, the real advantage of digital books. It's not not well realized so far, and so if I buy something as large as, say, a bible, I typically only get the advantage of the e-book needing little physical space, having a rudimentary search function, and offering a way of adjusting the font size (which is actually quite a substantial advantage). E-books are still in the childhood stage.

.

I think that the Logos/Verbum/Noet/... set of software and books does a promising job of realizing the potential of ebooks for the purposes of study although I could wish for more newbie friendly interface. It definitely provides better tools for searching and cross referencing.

[The company sells classical books and libraries under the Noet brand, Catholic books and libraries under the Verbum brand and other Christian books and libraries under the Logos brand but all purchases are available on all platforms]

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by crich70

The humble screwdriver is an example of a re-purposed tool. It's first use was back in the days of plate armor for knights I understand. Back then very few things were screwed together and the plate armor was one of them.

You are mistaken - there are no screws in plate armour. It's fastened to the wearer's undergarment (called an "arming doublet") using a combination of leather straps and laces, and the individual plates in more complex parts (such as a gauntlet) are connected using metal strips (called "lames") and rivets. Definitely no screws!

[ApK]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You are mistaken - there are no screws in plate armour. It's fastened to the wearer's undergarment (called an "arming doublet") using a combination of leather straps and laces, and the individual plates in more complex parts (such as a gauntlet) are connected using metal strips (called "lames") and rivets. Definitely no screws!

Possibly in 15th Century French Jousting armor?
HERE is the most authoritative reference I can find in all my 30 seconds of Googling.