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RE: Technology IN "the book"
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From: Steward, Celeste <csteward_at_aclibrary.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:06:32 -0700
Patrick--I couldn't agree more...I think we are just 'laying the grounwork' in terms of this new digital generation growing up now.
Many of the virtual requests I receive from kids are online recommendations or come directly from reader's advisory websites. It is interesting to not e that in many instances, I see a disparity between the virtual requests an d customer service requests from staff. The virtual requests are for more p opular formats: graphical novels, augmented reality titles and media enrich ed titles, such as Lego or Transformers. Oddly enough, the only complaints I receive are from staff who find the commercial nature off-putting. Yet, t hey circulate madly.
I've been following Patrick Carman's augmented reality series with great in terest. I believe the 39 Clues series also has an online component as well. I think the enduring popularity of Pokemon books (even when many are out o f print) is largely due to web and media presence. These hybrid formats app eal to a very different audience than we've previously known.
I think Lane Smith's picture book may appeal more to adults who yearn for t he nostalgia of cuddling up with a good book. I'm part of that generation t oo but I also recognize that the activity of reading is becoming significan tly interactive, much more social and increasingly virtual. Today's childre n may not yearn for that library book smell but they still like to read and learn, just not in the traditional methods.
For me, it doesn't really matter as long as children still love stories and reading. I cannot see that changing at all.
Celeste Steward, Librarian IV Collection Development Alameda County Library Fremont, CA
________________________________
From: ptcoxrutgers_at_gmail.com
On Behalf Of Patrick Cox
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 8:16 AM To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Subject:
Technology IN "the book"
I think a lot about how tech in children's literature reflects reflects our conceptions about children and tech. I think of Patrick Carmen’s Tracker s series, where young adults are incredibly tech savvy--so much so that the traditional book doesn’t quite contain them. Carman’s characters frequ ently reference their websites with passwords and the reader is prompted to put down the book and go online to check them. What’s on the website is part of the story.
And I think of Inanimate Alice. The text is entirely on-line and incorporat es video, games, sound, music....The tech-y aspects of it increase graduall y as the character ages, so it slowly introduces readers to more tech skill s as they go along. http://www.inanimatealice.com/index.html Alice is, amon g other things, a developing digital designer and technology is used in rea lly interesting ways as part of the story as much as to tell the story.
I think in these works technology is used to show “the digital child” a s something both kind of threatening and scary and “different” and also as rich with potential. And that’s what I think of the current digital l iterature phase. There are a lot of new things going on in story telling th at are changing “the book” and how stories are told, but the real radic al change in children's and adult lit will come, I think, when the kids who are growing up with this digital literature start producing more and more of it. Right now, we’re just laying the ground work.
-- Patrick Cox PhD Candidate Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University http://childhood.camden.rutgers.edu/
"In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible su mmer." Camus
"Don't let your studies interfere with your education." Henry Rutgers
"the jUdges of nOrmalitY are present everywhere." of course
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:06:32 -0700
Patrick--I couldn't agree more...I think we are just 'laying the grounwork' in terms of this new digital generation growing up now.
Many of the virtual requests I receive from kids are online recommendations or come directly from reader's advisory websites. It is interesting to not e that in many instances, I see a disparity between the virtual requests an d customer service requests from staff. The virtual requests are for more p opular formats: graphical novels, augmented reality titles and media enrich ed titles, such as Lego or Transformers. Oddly enough, the only complaints I receive are from staff who find the commercial nature off-putting. Yet, t hey circulate madly.
I've been following Patrick Carman's augmented reality series with great in terest. I believe the 39 Clues series also has an online component as well. I think the enduring popularity of Pokemon books (even when many are out o f print) is largely due to web and media presence. These hybrid formats app eal to a very different audience than we've previously known.
I think Lane Smith's picture book may appeal more to adults who yearn for t he nostalgia of cuddling up with a good book. I'm part of that generation t oo but I also recognize that the activity of reading is becoming significan tly interactive, much more social and increasingly virtual. Today's childre n may not yearn for that library book smell but they still like to read and learn, just not in the traditional methods.
For me, it doesn't really matter as long as children still love stories and reading. I cannot see that changing at all.
Celeste Steward, Librarian IV Collection Development Alameda County Library Fremont, CA
________________________________
From: ptcoxrutgers_at_gmail.com
On Behalf Of Patrick Cox
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 8:16 AM To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Subject:
Technology IN "the book"
I think a lot about how tech in children's literature reflects reflects our conceptions about children and tech. I think of Patrick Carmen’s Tracker s series, where young adults are incredibly tech savvy--so much so that the traditional book doesn’t quite contain them. Carman’s characters frequ ently reference their websites with passwords and the reader is prompted to put down the book and go online to check them. What’s on the website is part of the story.
And I think of Inanimate Alice. The text is entirely on-line and incorporat es video, games, sound, music....The tech-y aspects of it increase graduall y as the character ages, so it slowly introduces readers to more tech skill s as they go along. http://www.inanimatealice.com/index.html Alice is, amon g other things, a developing digital designer and technology is used in rea lly interesting ways as part of the story as much as to tell the story.
I think in these works technology is used to show “the digital child” a s something both kind of threatening and scary and “different” and also as rich with potential. And that’s what I think of the current digital l iterature phase. There are a lot of new things going on in story telling th at are changing “the book” and how stories are told, but the real radic al change in children's and adult lit will come, I think, when the kids who are growing up with this digital literature start producing more and more of it. Right now, we’re just laying the ground work.
-- Patrick Cox PhD Candidate Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University http://childhood.camden.rutgers.edu/
"In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible su mmer." Camus
"Don't let your studies interfere with your education." Henry Rutgers
"the jUdges of nOrmalitY are present everywhere." of course
---Received on Fri 28 Sep 2012 09:06:32 AM CDT
