The Future Space of Bookselling

The academic book has always had its own “space”: its own audience, its own distribution networks and its own purposes. Academia depends on the book as a dissemination and teaching medium, yet today many university campuses and towns no longer have bookstores. The academic space of the book has either closed or moved to a new place. This conference will consider what these new places may be, the impact this move has had on readers and booksellers, and the changing relationships that have always developed within the space and place of the book. Proposals are invited for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, or posters/exhibits addressing books and book selling through one of the following themes: 1. The book as context, container, content, network, object of desire 2. Ecology of the book (ownership, used books, DRM, rights, sharing) 3. The place of the book: the stores (brick and mortar or on-line), the network (social or otherwise), the device. 4. ... Read more

The academic book has always had its own “space”: its own audience, its own distribution networks and its own purposes. Academia depends on the book as a dissemination and teaching medium, yet today many university campuses and towns no longer have bookstores. The academic space of the book has either closed or moved to a new place. This conference will consider what these new places may be, the impact this move has had on readers and booksellers, and the changing relationships that have always developed within the space and place of the book. Proposals are invited for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, or posters/exhibits addressing books and book selling through one of the following themes: 1. The book as context, container, content, network, object of desire 2. Ecology of the book (ownership, used books, DRM, rights, sharing) 3. The place of the book: the stores (brick and mortar or on-line), the network (social or otherwise), the device. 4. Readers in a digital age