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'Future of Text' symposium to take place Thursday, May 13

John Thompson

University Communications

Western Washington University’s Academic Technology and User Services (ATUS) will host a symposium on “The Future of Text” on Thursday, May 13, in Viking Union room 565 on ’s campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

“The Future of Text” will feature presentations on eBooks, open-source textbooks, and on-demand publishing and digital content. The symposium will also have booths, guest speakers, and panel discussions regarding the impact of technology on books, journals, published processes and the written word in general.

  • 10 a.m.-2 p.m. – eBook vendors and textbook publisher displays.
  • 11 a.m.-12 p.m. – “The Reed College Kindle Pilot and Future of E-Books in Higher Education” by Trina Marmarelli, Instructional Technologist at Reed College.
  • 12-1 p.m. – “The Future of the Book” by Clyde Ford, local author.
  • 1-2 p.m. – “The Open Library Project” by Cable Green, eLearning director for the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges.
  • 2-3 p.m. – Panel discussion on “The Future of Publishing” featuring Green; faculty member and author, Bill Dietrich; Senior Director of Content Providers for Blackboard, Diana Childress; and owner of Village Books, Chuck Robinson.

The symposium will also feature tables with account representatives demonstrating and discussing eBook technology, on-demand publishing and digital content for higher education from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.:

  • Village Books’ owner Chuck Robinson and digital publishing manager Lindsay McGuirk
  • Associated Student Bookstore’s Peg Godwin
  • Library/ATUS Copyright Office-Coursepacks, with Andrea Peterson, head of Libraries IT and Kathy Tadlock, ATUS program support supervisor
  • Blackboard’s Nick Schiavi
  • Cengage’s Eric Zeigler
  • Macmillan’s Bill Davis
  • McGraw Hill’s Rachel Steffen
  • Harvard Business’s John Savage, regional sales manager of Harvard Business Publishing
  • Pearson’s Will Minerich
  • Barnes & Noble Booksellers’ Rob Whitney
  • Apple’s Chuck Kenney

presentations will be available live on the Web at .

The event is sponsored by ’s ATUS, Associated Students, the Student Technology Center, the Associated Student Bookstore, and Western Libraries.

For more information, contact John Farquhar, manager of Instructional Development and Multimedia, ’s Academic Technology and User Services, at (360) 650-6538 or john.farquhar@wwu.edu.