Abstract
Sustainability has various dimensions, including environmental, economic, social, political and cultural aspects. The book as a technology and as a concept has strong connections with all of these. Both print books and e-books have an environmental impact, and from an economic point of view, book publishing is a global market with enormous reach. Access to books and what we write in them touches on social, political and cultural issues from poverty to social inclusion and from censorship to freedom of speech. Considering the current environmental, economic and social crises across the world, continuing on the existing road is unsustainable. Rewriting the story of the book through the lens of sustainability might be one way to find a path forward. This paper takes a holistic approach to reimagining the book within the framework of sustainability. We consider in particular what boundaries we might be pushing with e-books. We argue that innovative and fresh narratives about the sustainability of the book, in all its forms, will help us to understand the future role of not just the book but of information in human society.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 27 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 01 Dec 2020 |
| Event | The Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand (BSANZ) Annual Conference 2020: The History of the Book and the Future of the World - Online Duration: 30 Nov 2020 → 02 Dec 2020 http://www.bsanz.org/ https://sites.google.com/view/bsanz-conference-2020/home (Conference website) https://sites.google.com/view/bsanz-conference-2020/programme (Program) |
Conference
| Conference | The Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand (BSANZ) Annual Conference 2020 |
|---|---|
| Period | 30/11/20 → 02/12/20 |
| Other | The BSANZ 2020 conference committee has decided that, in order to provide certainty to prospective delegates, we will make plans to host this year’s conference in an online format. While travel restrictions may ease between Australia and New Zealand by late November, it is unlikely that mass gatherings will be advisable at that time and yet we feel strongly that it is important our organisation’s members and friends continue to share research and give feedback. We hope to be able to do this as effectively as possible in an online conference. We will release details of the format soon. |
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