I probably spend more time thinking about, looking for, and working on the Thursday data source IGaDs than the other four days put together. Data is cool and it’s a huge part of just about every institution’s conversation today. The term, data-driven decision making, has almost become a mantra of organizational improvement. There is a lot of power in data, so long as it does not cause us to start treating our environments like laboratories. No classroom is a laboratory.
For this set of data, I am addressing some of the concerns of teachers and especially librarians, who often lament that we’ve stopped reading. Here are statistics that seem to counter that concern. As a society, we are apparently buying a lot of books. Many of them many not consist of ink-stamped pages. But we appear to be reading — a lot.
I would love to see students look at these two sets of data, revenues from digital publishing compared to over publishing revenues, and express them visually in some way that tells a story.
Association of American Publishers: New Publishing Industry Survey Details Strong Three-Year Growth in Net Revenue
International Digital Publishing Forum: Industry Statistics