Prospective usage

Questions

1. How does modern technology influence the usage of books?
2. What are the changes in book selling since the rise of e-books and digital materials? (Bookstores, libraries, book prices).
3. How is price affected by the changes, by e-books etc.?
4. Has the number of bookstores shrunk?
5. What are the possibilities with currently developed or under development technologies (ex. OLED displays).
6. What has changed the last 10 years in books?
7. What happened to reading habits over the past 10 years due to new technology?

Discussion

How does modern technology influence the usage of books?

As new technologies are coming up fast this also influences the way books are created, read and published. Modern technologies make the book as we know it now days drift more to a digital format. Think of PDF or the LCD-TV's you see coming up more and more with information on it.
Because of these changes the 'old' book will probably not be used in the way we know today. New display development will make books available in digital media, like what happened with audio that was converted into MP3.
Besides the general perspective that the book will change in its form answering this question is not possible since that will be answered in the scenario on the future of the book.

What are the changes in book selling since the rise of e-books and digital materials?

For this question please refer to this page of the research questions Economic perspective/value.

How is price affected by the changes, by e-books etc.?

For this question please also refer to this page of the research questions Economic perspective/value.

Has the number of bookstores shrunk?

Statistical overview of the usage of libraries since 1999

The number of bookstores is threatened by online bookshops and the growing market for e-books. For the number of bookstores no accurate numbers could be found. The number of books and other materials lent by dutch libraries has been declining since about 1999. In the following image from the dutch Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (Central Bureau for Statistics) this is displayed.
Based on this information and general knowledge on the bookmarket in relation to new media we can come to the conclusion that the number of bookstores may not have shrunk but the amount of books sold per bookshop has been decreasing.