[Web4lib] Vooks = Text+Video+Etc. > Coming To An iPhone Near You ...

[McKiernan, Gerard [LIB]]

Colleagues/

 

>>>As I Noted On More Than One Occasion > We Are MultiModal Social
Creatures<<< 

 

Think About The Possibilities For 

 

Information Literacy / Museum Education / Reference Works / YouNameIt 

 

/Gerry 

 

Curling Up With Hybrid Books, Videos Included / MOTOKO RICH /  NYTimes /
October 1 2009

 

For more than 500 years the book has been a remarkably stable entity: a
coherent string of connected words, printed on paper and bound between
covers. But in the age of the iPhone, Kindle and YouTube, the notion of
the book is becoming increasingly elastic as publishers mash together
text, video and Web features in a scramble to keep readers interested in
an archaic form of entertainment.

 

On Thursday, for instance, Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Ernest
Hemingway and Stephen King, is working with a multimedia partner to
release four "vooks," which intersperse videos throughout electronic
text that can be read - and viewed - online or on an iPhone or iPod
Touch.  And in early September Anthony E. Zuiker, ...  released "Level
26: Dark Origins," a novel - published on paper, as an e-book and in an
audio version - in which readers are invited to log on to a Web site to
watch brief videos that flesh out the plot.

 

Some publishers say this kind of multimedia hybrid is necessary to lure
modern readers who crave something different. But reading experts
question whether fiddling with the parameters of books ultimately
degrades the act of reading.

 

[snip]

 

The new hybrids add much more. In one of the Simon & Schuster vooks, a
fitness and diet title, readers can click on videos that show them how
to perform the exercises. A beauty book contains videos that demonstrate
how to make homemade skin-care potions.  Not just how-tos are getting
the cinematic work-up. Simon & Schuster is also releasing two digital
novels combining text with videos a minute or 90 seconds long that
supplement - and in some cases advance - the story line. 

 

"Everybody is trying to think about how books and information will best
be put together in the 21st century," said Judith Curr, publisher of
Atria Books, the Simon & Schuster imprint that is releasing the
electronic editions in partnership with Vook, a multimedia company. She
added, "You can't just be linear anymore with your text."

 

In some cases, social-networking technologies enable conversations among
readers that will influence how books are written. The children's
division of HarperCollins recently released the first in a young-adult
mystery series called "The Amanda Project," and has invited readers to
discuss clues and characters on a Web site. As the series continues,
some of the reader comments may be incorporated into minor characters or
subplots. 

 

[snip]

 

Some authors believe the new technologies can enrich books. For his
history of street songs in 18th-century France, Robert Darnton, director
of the Harvard University Library, will include links to recordings of
the actual tunes.

 

[snip]

 

Links To Full Text And Article Links And Added Link Available At 

 

[ http://tinyurl.com/ybyao2f  ]

 

/Gerry

 

Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor

Science and Technology Librarian

Iowa State University Library

Ames IA 50011

 

gerrymck at iastate.edu

 

There Are No Answers, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

 

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed

Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace