[iDC] Media dies more slowly than some would like

[Aaron Beebe]

I'm gathering that what Rick is really getting at isn't about books in
the end.  It's about libraries.

One of the things that makes your library so intriguing to me, Rick, is
not only the sense of discovery, but the act of *historical* discovery.
It's about the realization that there used to be so many weird and
amazing things out there.  The entire scope of publishing goes way
beyond amazon and google, which are keyed towards new, in-print or
recent-run books.  When things are rare because they're out of print and
therefore unique, but they're not so rare as to actually be notable,
there's an opportunity for fresh discovery.  There's something
interesting about discovering things that were, until very  recently,
completely mundane.  

a 

Aaron Beebe
Curator
The Coney Island Museum
www.coneyisland.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: idc-bounces at mailman.thing.net
[mailto:idc-bounces at mailman.thing.net]
> On Behalf Of Rick Prelinger
> Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 12:57 AM
> To: idc at mailman.thing.net
> Subject: Re: [iDC] Media dies more slowly than some would like
> 
> This has been very interesting.  Thanks to all for the thoughts.
> 
> I guess I'd mod my original remarks as well and speculate that though
the
> ecosystem encompassing both ebooks and pbooks is very new, I don't
think
> pbooks have stopped evolving.  I think the (sometimes vague) desires
they
> address are going to be with us for a long time to come, and that it
would
> be short-sighted to say that they're senescent.
> 
> We await the development of digital discovery tools and applications
with
> excited anticipation.  In fact we've thought of simply posting
pictures of
> our physical shelves and linking images of book spines to the
digitized
> versions, and that's just a starting point.  All I'd say is that we
really
> need to build unpredictability into discovery.  Far too many "new
media"
> projects, including most of the ones in which I've been involved, hide
the
> links, connections and surprises under the hood.  Everything is
> preordained, or the universe of possibilities is small enough that you
> cannot really get lost.  This isn't real discovery.
> 
> In addition, when one deploys the database as a tool for discovery,
the
> act of formulating a coherent query often serves to limit the
> unpredictability of what it might return.  Riding the wildcard may
help
> ensure that we continue to find surprising answers to our queries.
Gaming
> might be another way to think about
> building randomness and serendipity into digital collections.
> 
> The engineering sensibility, which so often seeks to breed out the
unusual
> and enable replicable results, has a very hard time with the idea that
> people might want to find what they weren't looking for.  It would be
> great to see digital maps without gas stations, motels, FedEx dropoff
> points, taquerias and dog groomers.
> 
> Rick
> --
> 
> Rick Prelinger
> Prelinger Archives    http://www.prelinger.com
> P.O. Box 590622, San Francisco, Calif. 94159-0622 USA
> footage at panix.com
> 
> Board President, Internet Archive
> rick at archive.org
> 
> Prelinger Library:  http://www.prelingerlibrary.org
> 
> NEW: Prelinger Library Digital Collections
> http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger_library
> 
> 
> 
> 
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