i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

Books are important for I-Schoolers. Not just because the School of Information resides on the ground where the Library School once stood but also because libraries were the first to propose and partially solve the organization of information. Libraries are where it all started. The first information organization, the first information retrieval systems and the first document management systems. We discussed some of it in our classes, got our mind imploded with the "Library of Babel". We saw with amazement the old book catalog card Bob showed us in class. I had seen one before in my University Library where the librarians loved to the cards catalog and loathed the new online systems. I think they were fighting a losing battle. 

But this is all part of history. What about the future? We all know that the libraries are a thing of the past. Libraries are dead, long live the libraries. What does future holds for books. eBooks are making massive inroads in the market. With this, the costs of publishing are plummeting.  And I think I might end up owning as many books in my eBook readers as were in my institute library 10 years ago. So, its only a slight exaggeration to say that we might all up as our own personal librarians one day. What does it do for reading? What would the books of future be like. For sure, they would be digital but how would you interact with them. How would they collate the information you need to see.

Designers at IDEO tried to answer these questions in this awesome video. It described three stories of Books. Named Nelson, Coupland and Alice they represent the books  of the future. 

Nelson is all about balance: Balanced views from different authors. Balanced opinions from different people. It is becoming increasingly become easy to live in your own bubble now days and read published material that doesn't challenge your belief system. But Nelson tries to change that.  Nelson is about reading about things might we prefer to ignore. Just like reading that book you saw in the library while browsing.

Coupland is all about social. Its about sharing books. In your community and especially in your company and in between companies. It's like a virtual book club which everyone can join. Just like a library.

Alice is all about interaction. Interaction between the author and the reader and the reader and its surroundings.  It's about changing the flow of information from the traditional top to bottom approach to the bottom to top and all around it. Its how content consumers of the old become content producers and readers become authors and vice versa.

These are interesting times for books, as books become digital and owners become librarians. I wonder though: if the future of the books is as envisioned by these designers, wouldn't instead of dying off; libraries would live-on in spirit (as they should).