The Development of the Written Word

Presented by Frank Yost

• Humankind has always attempted to express himself/herself through some form of graphic representation either by language or by art as evidenced by this picture of a hyena which is over 30,000 years old.

• Some languages like the Mayan and the Egyptian incorporated both art and language by using symbology to record their thoughts and history. This is often found on the walls of religious building or contained in scrolls made from papyrus. In fact one of the seven ancient wonders of the world was the ancient library of Alexandria, Egypt

• Written text in the middle or dark ages would have disappeared in western culture all together if not for the labors of monks who embellished the books they scribed with a new style of writing called calligraphy. The books contained in these monasteries helped to preserve mankind's knowledge during these dark times.

• The Renaissance period saw rebirth of the arts and sciences and one of the most important invention occurred around 1440 in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg. This was the printing press. This discovery allowed for books to be created quicker and less expensive thus increasing over time humankinds access to books and literacy

• The typewriter brought the printing press to the home around 140 years ago when it was invented in 1870. This tool would become electrified and the friend of businessmen, writers and students until it was replaced in the 1980’s with the desk top computer and the development of word processing software

• 1971 - The first digital book or e-book was actually part of a project called Project-Gutenberg launched by Michael Hart. The goal of this project was to create the first digital library. The main drawback with this project is that it only includes books in the public domain (Lebert 2009)

• The mission of Project Gutenberg was to put at everyone’s disposal, in electronic versions, as many literary works from public domain as possible for free.

• The first book or document that was available via the Project Gutenberg initiative was the Declaration of Independence (Lebert 2009)

• 1994 – Publishers begin to publish books both in e-book format and in traditional print

• 1995 – Amazon.com becomes the first online bookstore where digital text can be purchased.

• 2003 – e-books are sold world wide

• 2006 – Internet users envision a world wide digital library

• Lebert, M., (2009) A Short History of eBooks Retrieved from

http://www.etudesrancaises.net/dossiers/ebookEN.pdf

• Mitchell, Robert. (2011, March). ComputerWorldUK. E-paper market continues to expand. Retrieved from

http://www.computerworlduk.com/in-depth/it-business/3266696/e-paper-market-continunes-to-expand/

• PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2010). Turning the page, the future of ebooks. Retrieved from http://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/entertainment-media/pdf/eBooks-Trends-Developments.pdf

• Springe. (2010) A survey of ebook usage and perceptions at the university of liverpool. Retrieved from www.springer.com/cda/V7671+

Liverpool+White+Paper+Part2.pdf?