http://eduspaces.net/steves/weblog/331184.html

I'm always looking for new tools to bring to our students. With high stakes testing for writing being such an issue here in Pennsylvania, I'm looking for tools that will help our kids. One of the writing tools that I've stumbled upon is called SOPHIE. I was wondering if anyone out there has used it or has done any investigation into it. I first heard about it on the if:book site and it really struck my interest.

I've had much involvement with libraries and librarians over the years and with my innate interest in technology/teaching, the future of the book enthralls me. I find it interesting that we hold onto this notion of a physical book in education so much that when I bring up the subject of the future, people look at me like I have six heads. So what does the future of the book look like? The Institute for the Future of the Book seems to think tools like SOPHIE will drive its future. It's inevitable that we'll have some dynamic, multimedia rich, and interactive tool in the future...but how far off in the future? We're bombarded so much with the impact of our society on the environment but we never contemplate the book's impact on the environment.

What is the impact of the making of books on the actual environment? It's been a very difficult thing to actually find...the secret society of book readers must be very secretive with this data. But I found something...according to the Eco-Libris Web site, "About 20 Million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the U.S. alone." That's crazy! Here are some interesting points that are made about the book/paper industry:

• Number of new titles published annually in the U.S.: 172,000 (2005 figures)
• Number of books produced annually in the U.S.: 4.15 billion (2006 figures)
• Number of books sold annually in the U.S.: 3.09 billion (2006 figures)
• 55 percent of fiction is bought by women, 45 percent by men
• Annual revenues of U.S. book publishers: $26.8 billion (2004 figures)
• Annual revenues of European book publishers: Euro 22.3 billion (2004 figures)
• Number of book publishers in the U.S.: more than 80,000

Did you even know that there's a Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use? I had no idea...but what's more interesting is that only about only 0.19% of all U.S. publishers ARE committed to the treatise. Oh and let me just throw this...only about 5% of publishers use recycled paper...oops!

So this brings me back to my original point...what is the future of the book going to look like? Is it going to be here quicker than the librarian thinks? Just a thought...maybe eBooks ARE better than this physical thing setting on my desk.

Steve