There have been numerous discussions at BookEnds over the role books will play in our increasing screen-centric digital age.  Will novels be replaced by e-readers and textbooks by the iPad?  How can the physical distribution of books compete with e-books sent over the internet?  Should BookEnds be focusing its effort’s away from books? 

Here’s my two cents: Books are here to stay.

Johannes Gutenberg invited the printing press in 1440 – over 570 years ago.  Prior to Gutenberg’s invention, all written knowledge was copied by hand at the rate of a few pages a day.  Gutenberg’s press allowed for a single machine to produce 3,600 pages per day!  Few, if any inventions have had such a profound effect on our society, transferring wisdom, knowledge, and news to the masses.

The digital age has made access to information as simple as querying a Google search – but access to that information requires the ability to read.  Imagine not being able to read - I can’t.  Almost everything I do involves reading.  My work, iPhone, news, e-mail, travel.  The list goes on.

BookEnds serves communities without access to the basic tools they need to learn to read.  In an era of ever shrinking public budgets, school administrators are forced to make tough choices.  There is not even $1 exclusively allocated for the purchase of recreational reading books for students in the current LAUSD budget. Funds to upgrade the school’s computers are nonexistent. 

Now, how do you convince a school with limited funds to procure an expensive piece of hardware for each student (that will be outdated in 18 months), plus the various e-books and digital content necessary for learning?  Unfortunately I think the widespread adoption of e-readers for our public schools is a long way off.

In the meantime, elite private schools and those of us fortunate enough to enjoy an iPad or e-reader, may begin to migrate away from paper books (I’m still partial to the paperback).  This creates an awesome opportunity for BookEnds: redirect the unvalued ‘paper’ books to those who need them most. The ability of those disregarded books to inspire us to learn to read will never become obsolete; after all, the Gutenberg bible (the first mass produced book), printed in 1445 is still legible today.

Brandon J Keefe
BookEnds Co-Founder