Going forward with the idea of the environmental impact of books, it’s interesting to see how both books and e books have an impact on the world. Books take up trees and some processing to print; however, e-books, while not taking up any trees, require more processing to be made and go obsolete much more quickly than books. The toxic materials in e-books are also much more harmful when dumped in a landfill than a book that is dumped in a landfill, because some of the metals actually taint and toxic the earth, and make it so that nothing can grow.

I’m not entirely sure about what to do with my portfolio. I was thinking about perhaps approaching the problem of e-books and the difference between the environmental impact of e-books and traditional codexes. There’s a lot of really good literature out on how one is better than the other, and its interesting to see how one can easily swing the argument to favor one side or the other. I was thinking about getting an e-reader after reading some of the pro-e reader articles, but after reading the pro-book articles my mind has been changed again. It depends on what kind of environmental impact you want to make.

As im writing on second hand digital markets, im beginning to think more about license ownership.  Digital ownership means you can have access to that item if you have access to any device that can reach that program.  I found myself thinking about my Beats headphones in a weird way.  Their relatively expensive headphones and my roomate and I both own a pair.  My pair broke spontaneously one day and I was very disheartened.  I asked my roomate if I could use his headphones, but I felt cheated in a way.  With my tainted rewired brain thinking of everything in ownership through licenses, I felt entitled to use those headphones: as if I owned a license that entitled me to the use of any nearby Beats headphones.

The average number for a license agreement for an ebook is about the price of 1 book per 3 users.  Im surprised how uneven this ratio is even though the book no longer has to be produced.  I feel like publishers could incur a loss from ebooks, or maybe they dont. I want to know some sort of calculation for the loss or increase in profits by moving to ebooks.  There must be other costs that go into ebooks like software development and creating the transition from book to ebook, but how much compared to selling traditional books? I cant find anything good online.

At the brown bag we were informed that the library now basically 100,000 ebooks and 500,000 normal books.  Its pretty impressive how fast this number of ebooks has entered the library.  I wonder if ebooks will ever outnumber books.  I know there will always be special old books that an ebook could never replace, but eventually we may stop producing certain books all together and leave the text digital.

Its interesting to see how the Ebook has also aided traditional books in its determination of supply.  When viewers looked at an ebook for an extended period of time in their online catelog, the book is added to the inventory list and purchased in attempt to match consumer demand

I especially liked the brown bag because due to the contrast of views of the two librarians.  There was the technologically savvy, open-minded Mr. Luhrs discussing the possibilities of future technology and its affect on copyright versus the traditional physical book loving Mrs. Heidenwolf worried about the affect of technology on publishers and artists.  I enjoyed watching their contrast in views even though they were reluctant to oppose a fellow professor past a certain extent.

Its interesting to see how the Ebook has also aided traditional books in its determination of supply.  Mrs. Heidenwolf explained that when viewers look at an ebook for an extended period of time in their online catalog, the book is added to the inventory list and purchased in attempt to match consumer demand

Mrs. Heidenwolf also informed us that the library now basically has 100,000 ebooks and 500,000 normal books.  Its pretty impressive how fast this number of ebooks has entered the library.  I wonder if ebooks will ever outnumber books.  I know there will always be special old books that an ebook could never replace, but eventually we may stop producing certain books all together and leave the text digital.

As many of you know, last week Lafayette was fortunate enough to host Jane Goodall.  In my opinion, her speech was wonderful and inspiring, and Dr. Goodall is truly a remarkable woman filled with intellectual curiosity and passion.  I was curious, though, about the accusations of plagiarism that were recently held against her.  Passages of  Dr.Goodall’s new book Seeds of Hope supposedly borrowed sentences from other sources.  In response to these accusations Dr. Goodall said, “This was a long and well researched book, and I am distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies.”

We know that plagiarism is a moral, not a legal, issue.  Should Dr. Goodall be held accountable?  Does it matter if it is not illegal?