Electronic publishing: Self-publishing with lulu.com

I enjoyed this task. Lulu.com was fairly easy to use and I think it’s a really good way of harnessing that ‘long tail’ to create publications and books that only a limited number of people will buy. I think the business model Lulu uses would be successful because of the sheer number of people who would want to create their own calendars, books, etc.

I think this self-publishing revolution is quite a significant change and that it may change the nature of publishing – where once people had to be approved by a publisher before anything could go ahead and be published, these days they can do it themselves. It levels out the playing field, making it more bottom-up rather than the traditional publishing model which is more top-down.

Electronic publishing: HTML workshop

In this workshop we learnt how to use basic HTML codes to create a web page. I am glad that, as Laki said, these days not many people actually create websites themselves, because web services like blogs already have the templates available, so you can just focus on the interesting part – the content creation. It is still good to know how the back of house stuff works though.

Electronic publishing: multimedia workshop: flash

 

In this class we learnt how to use Flash. The worksheet was good for working through it step-by-step. I don’t think I quite understand it yet – my frog’s sound didn’t match when it jumped – but I had never been exposed to Flash or creating animations before, so I think it went ok. I liked the experience of experimenting with a tool I’ve never used before, and would like to give in another couple of tries to get a better understanding of how it works.

Electronic publishing: Contribution to course resource list: Citeulike

All contributions were added to Citeulike on the 15th of October.

 

1. Young, Sherman 2008, Beyond the flickering screen: re-situating e-books, MC Journal, vol. 11, no. 4,  viewed 15 October 2008.

 

Reason for contribution: It’s an interesting article that talks about how book readers haven’t made the ‘cultural change’ to e-books as yet, even though online digital delivery is common in other formats such as music (iPods). And even though the technology is now good enough to compete with print books, the idea still hasn’t caught on in the mainstream. Young argues technological change is easy, but cultural change is harder.

 

2. Berube, Linda 2005, E-books in public libraries, Interlending and document supply, vol. 33, iss. 1, p. 14-18, viewed 15 October 2008, Emerald Full Text.

 

Reason for contribution: This article talks about how e-books can threaten print reading culture, how UK libraries are considering e-books, and discusses the experience of having some e-books for loan at a public library.

 

3. Waller, Vivienne 2008, Legitimacy for large public libraries in the digital age, Library Review, vol. 57, iss. 5, viewed 15 October 2008, Emerald Full Text.

 

Reason for contribution: As my major project looked at how libraries used Web 2.0 electronic publishing devices such as blogs and wikis, I am interested in how these tools can be used as a way of keeping libraries relevant in the digital information age. I was quite positive about libraries using Web 2.0 devices in my essay, but Waller thinks focusing on technology to legitimate libraries is doomed to fail.

 

4. Bohner, Dorte 2008, Digital Rights Description as part of Digital Rights Management: a challenge for libraries, Library Hi Tech, vol. 26, iss. 4, viewed 15 October 2008, Emerald Full Text.

 

Reason for contribution: I chose this article because I think it is relevant to electronic publishing, which I study, and libraries, where I work. Digital rights management is still a fairly new field and one I wanted to know more about. Interestingly, the article states that publishers are beginning to think of libraries as competition because libraries are reaching content users directly.

 

5. Joint, Nicholas 2008, Is digitisation the new circulation? Borrowing trends, digitisation, and the nature of reading in US and UK libraries, Library Review, vol. 57, no. 2, viewed 15 October 2008, Emerald Full Text.

 

Reason for contribution: This is another article that relates both to electronic publishing and libraries. It asks if things are fundamentally changed for libraries with the digitisation of content, etc. The author concludes that while the appetite for electronic information is increasing, this is not at the expense of printed library collections.  

Electronic publishing: Web 2.0 and publishing: Blogs and wikis

I am very familiar with blogs and have had some experience with wikis. I used to keep a personal blog fairly regularly, and was quite involved in the blogosphere. Getting comments on your blog and lots of pagehits (mine went into the tens of thousands) can be quite addictive. Through my job at Northcote library I completed a ‘learning 2.0’ program that exposed me to all aspects of Web 2.0 such as RSS feeds, mashups and wikis. I am not really convinced by the hype sorounding wikis as yet. Obviously Wikipedia is a perfect example of ‘harnessing collective intelligence’, yet I find wikis a bit clunky to use in real life.  I loved the machine is us/ing us clip we watched in the class, I think it really encompassed the amazing potential of Web 2.0. 

E-publishing: Image workshop reflections

I enjoyed this practical session as had not had much previous experience with image editing. The instructions were easy to follow and I think I understand more about compressing files, etc. now. I’m happy that I was able to follow the instructions quite easily. I thought the class raised some interesting issues about whether we can ever ‘believe’ a photo these days, particularly one we see in a magazine.