Ultra Libris Policy, Technology, and the Creative Economy of Book Publishing in Canada

by Lorimer, Rowland

• ISBN13: 9781770410763
• ISBN10: 1770410767
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-08-24
• Publisher: ECW Press

Summary

Reflecting cultural, political, and technological changes, this detailed exploration of Canadian book publishing displays trends of the industry from the last 50 years. Against the backdrop of historical highlights, the book dives into modern events in book publishing, focusing on the explosion of national book publishing in the 1970s and detailing the sparring match between the industry and government during the 1970s through the 1990s. While industry and government policy both aimed at national survival in the face of globalization, the book documents how, beginning in the mid-1990s, Ontario established an emphasis on financial stability for the cultural sector accompanied by stimulants to encourage participation in domestic and international markets. This new vision laid the foundation for and anticipated the growing recognition of the creative economy worldwide. Coinciding with that recognition came an embrace of technology not just as a business catalyst, but also as a transformative medium for expression with the potential to change the nature of both book publishing and human understanding. Finally, the text concludes with a discourse on the future of books and book publishing, not only in Canada but in the world as a whole.

Author Biography

Rowland Lorimer is director of the master of publishing program and the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at Simon Fraser University. He is a professor of communication and past editor and past publisher of the Canadian Journal of Communication, of which he is now the treasurer. He is an honorary president of the Association for Canadian Studies and is a past president of the Canadian Association of Learned Journals. He lives in Vancouver.

Table of Contents

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix INTRODUCTION Policy, Technology, and the Creative Economy of Book Publishing in Canada 1 CHAPTER 1 Of books, publishing, and social context 19 CHAPTER 2 Prelude to modernity: Some historical notes on Canadian book publishing and cultural development 53 CHAPTER 3 Establishing a book publishing industry: from the 1960s to the 1990s 77 CHAPTER 4 Reconceiving book publishing from the middle 1990s forward 121 CHAPTER 5 The current state of Canada’s book industry, government policies, and cultural partnerships 157 CHAPTER 6 Operational and market realities in Canadian book publishing 205 CHAPTER 7 Trajectories of technology-incubated massive change 247 CHAPTER 8 Changing realities and the future of Canadian book publishing 291 APPENDIX 339 NOTES 351 BIBLIOGRAPHY 389 INDEX 409