Comments on: Scribbling in the margins: More musings on who’ll do it http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/scribbling-in-the-margins-more-musings-on-wholl-do-it/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:05:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/scribbling-in-the-margins-more-musings-on-wholl-do-it/comment-page-1/#comment-56116 David Rothman Thu, 20 Apr 2006 19:59:47 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4712#comment-56116 Hi, Quinn. Thanks for your thoughts. BTW, I myself am especially excited by the possibilities for distance ed where people can't enjoy face-to-face contact. - David Hi, Quinn. Thanks for your thoughts. BTW, I myself am especially excited by the possibilities for distance ed where people can’t enjoy face-to-face contact. – David

]]> By: Quinn Anya Carey http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/scribbling-in-the-margins-more-musings-on-wholl-do-it/comment-page-1/#comment-56115 Quinn Anya Carey Thu, 20 Apr 2006 19:47:56 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4712#comment-56115 Hey now, I didn't mean there's <em>no one</em> annotating books in academia. :) Just that, in my experience, the interaction with books in the <em>classroom</em> setting is done face-to-face. The digitized (generally pdf) materials we use tend to be created for classroom use. The professor teaches, gives assignments based on that lessons and related readings, and students work (sometimes together) to do those assignments. Guidance and direction are built into the system. I think the greatest potential for academic annotation comes from self-directed research. In order for a scholar to be successful, classes need to be just a jumping-off point. A minority of the books on our PhD reading list are ever assigned for a class. In order to write any decent paper, you have to go beyond the materials covered face-to-face. Because physical copies of some of these books are hard to come by, electronic versions would really free up the scholar to annotate directly into the text. Furthermore, public notes would be a much more efficient alternative to the "I-disagree-with-what-this-guy-said" genre of papers, where a back-and-forth discussion published in journals can drag on for years. Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of annotatable e-books. I just think there are two things currently preventing it from really taking off: 1) the non-annotatable digital format, and 2) the digitization energies focused towards what materials people need <em>now</em> in the classroom, without looking ahead to what materials people will rely on <em>later</em> in their independent research. Hey now, I didn’t mean there’s no one annotating books in academia. :) Just that, in my experience, the interaction with books in the classroom setting is done face-to-face. The digitized (generally pdf) materials we use tend to be created for classroom use. The professor teaches, gives assignments based on that lessons and related readings, and students work (sometimes together) to do those assignments. Guidance and direction are built into the system.

I think the greatest potential for academic annotation comes from self-directed research. In order for a scholar to be successful, classes need to be just a jumping-off point. A minority of the books on our PhD reading list are ever assigned for a class. In order to write any decent paper, you have to go beyond the materials covered face-to-face. Because physical copies of some of these books are hard to come by, electronic versions would really free up the scholar to annotate directly into the text. Furthermore, public notes would be a much more efficient alternative to the “I-disagree-with-what-this-guy-said” genre of papers, where a back-and-forth discussion published in journals can drag on for years.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of annotatable e-books. I just think there are two things currently preventing it from really taking off: 1) the non-annotatable digital format, and 2) the digitization energies focused towards what materials people need now in the classroom, without looking ahead to what materials people will rely on later in their independent research.

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