E-mania! — the present and future of electronic art book publishing

The art book publishing world has started to plunge its feet into electronic publishing with a variety of results. Some art e-book publishers have made beautiful e-book applications for tablets, replete with audio, video, and more, but these publication apps are ephemeral: over time these publications will be rendered un-viewable as their hardware becomes obsolete. Others publishers have created highly functional flat files, better for our preservation requirements but lacking all of the multi-media potential that newer more interactive technologies offer. Most publishers have simply scanned existing print publications, sometimes with all images included, sometimes with images redacted because of copyright restrictions. Other constraints on access to e-book content concern evolving sales and distribution models for library ownership, licensing, and archiving. Another complicating factor is the lack of available descriptive and technical metadata to support access to e-books regardless of format. For example, some institutions have digitized published materials for free access, but have yet to make their metadata available to libraries to help disseminate their new digital publications. And finally, few publishers or institutions have grappled with issues of longevity with these digital products and associated media files. We hope to gather e-book experts to encourage a natural connection between creators, consumers and stewards of these materials. We plan to invite people from multiple sectors of our community engaged in publishing, producing and acquiring art e-publications. Publishers in the field of electronic art book publishing and librarians who are grappling with access and longevity will present their thoughts on what exists and how we as producers and consumers can together create the best possible result for our research community. Speakers include Murtha Baca, Nathaniel Deines, Paula Gabbard, David Grosz, and Charles Kim. The session is moderate by Carole Ann Fabian. This recording is made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Related Event: ARLISNA 2016 Seattle Conference