Online Symposium 

From The Book & The Computer -- Book Culture at the Crossroads, Muro Kenji, Editor in Chief

A Watershed Moment
Today, we are poised at a watershed moment for all of book culture. There has been nothing like this in over 500 years. Some have compared the advent of digital publishing technology to the Gutenberg revolution. Jason Epstein and Roger Chartier, both of whom we have interviewed for our online journal, have argued that electronic technology will have an even greater impact on the book than Gutenberg's printing press. At the same time, the phenomenon of globalization -- also made possible by digital technology -- has emerged as a threat to the richness and diversity of book culture. Even the future form of the book is in doubt. [read more]

Write on 

Omniglot: a guide to writing systems, is an amazing effort and website by Simon Ager

What is writing?

There are a number of different ways to describe writing and writing systems.

In the world's writing systems, Peter T. Daniels defines writing as:

a system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer.

In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writings Systems, Florian Coulmas defines a writing system as:

a set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way, with the purpose of recording messages which can be retrieved by everyone who knows the language in question and the rules by virtue of which its units are encoded in the writing system.

All writing systems use visible signs with one exception: Braille, the system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people. Hence the need to include tactile signs in the above definition.

In A History of Writing, Steven Roger Fischer argues that no one definition of writing can cover all the writing systems that exist and have ever existed. Instead he states that a 'complete writing' system should fullfill all the following criteria:

• Complete writing must have as its purpose communication;
• Complete writing must consist of artificial graphic marks on a durable or electronic surface;
• Complete writing must use marks that relate conventionally to articulate speech (the systematic arrangement of significant vocal sounds) or electronic programing in such a way that communication is achieved.

Book Clubs 

Bibliofuture: Librarian's Book Club

Selections for May - June 2001:

• The Myth of the Paperless Office by Abigail Sellen
• Scrolling Forward : Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age by David Levy

Previous selections

Of course you already heard this -- Oprah closes the book on clubs by Carrie Kirby

To the disappointment of the book industry, authors and readers, Oprah Winfrey said yesterday that she is ending her influential book club as a regular feature.

"It has become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share," Winfrey said in a brief release yesterday.

"I will continue featuring books on the 'Oprah Winfrey Show' when I feel they merit my heartfelt recommendation."

It is not clear how often Winfrey will introduce books on her show. Her spokeswoman would only say, "It's ending on a monthly basis."

Publishers are mourning the loss of a cash cow. [read more]

Where do you get your news? 

From the "Car Talk" guys -- Who Reads What and Why

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they should run the country.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand the Washington Post. They do, however, like their smog statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave L.A. to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and they did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country, and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country either, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feministic atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be illegal aliens from ANY country or galaxy as long as they are democrats.
10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.