Jeff Jarvis reflects on the allegedly impending death of the book. Or the American book, anyway. One key set of figures:
Publishing database Web site Bowker reported that there were more new book titles sold in Great Britain last year - 206,000 new titles, an increase of 28 percent - than in the United States -172,000 new titles, a decrease of 18 percent.
As he points out, a lot of the problems may be down to bad publishers, bad editors and bad books. Not books themselves.
UPDATE: Unlike JJ, I'm an old fart who worries that kids aren't reading enough of those terribly old-fashioned rectangular objects with hundreds of pages in the middle. Surfing the Net and snacking on magazines just don't use the same muscles, as far as I'm concerned. A little more evidence arrives this morning:
Books are more than twice as effective as computers in raising standards among pupils, says a senior academic who spent 30 years training teachers to use computers. Spending £100 a year on books for each primary school pupil raised test scores by 1.5 per cent while the same amount invested in computer technology was less than half as effective, according to the study by Steve Hurd, a former teacher trainer specialising in computer assisted learning.
Mr Hurd, who now lectures at the Open University, said the results were “significant”. “It is surprising that books matter. Things have gone overboard on ICT (information and communication technology). It is out of kilter. Schools pick up the message that they will be clobbered if their technology is not up to scratch, but no one looks at books.” School inspectors collect data on the provision of computers but have not asked for figures on spending on books since 2003, he said.
Via tech expert John Naughton, who adds:
Some years ago, at a Parents’ Evening at my children’s (lavishly funded) secondary school, I listened as the Head boasted about the expansion of their ICT facilities. When he’d finished, I asked if anyone had considered the possibility that the money would be better spent on teachers and books. He looked at me uncomprehendingly — as indeed did most of the audience, who expected better from someone who specialises in ICT.
E-MAIL From a Texan reader:
I think one other thing that is overlooked here in the States is the awful state of teaching that goes along with the awful books the kids are forced to read in school. My kids like to read (except the middle one who just wants to play football) and they hate (with big capital letters) their English and reading classes. The books are terrible, no classics at all. Worse, my daughter in H.S. has had more than her share of "chick-lit". The overweaning propaganda has turned her into a dreaded 'Republican', and they wanted the opposite!
