This presentation examines the rise of e-books and some of their pros and cons by focusing on one particular book, De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius.

1. The E-Book Effect
Rob Cagna, Library Director
West Virginia University
Charleston Health Sciences Library
www.twitter.com/rcagna
www.slideshare.net/cagna

2. What we’ll examine
• Old ways of how students gathered material
• New ways; new formats
• What’s good
• What may be problematic

3. “Old” ways of getting a book
• From teacher/school
• School library
• Public library
• Interlibrary loan
• Local bookstore
• Scholastic Reading Club (book orders)
• Book Fairs
(All still in use!)

4. But now, new access points…
E-book readers
Desktop computers
Laptops
Tablets
Smartphones

5. Some benefits of e-books
• Portability
• Access
• Price
• Adaptability (font size, speaking ability, etc.)
• Multimedia content
• Interactive, assessed reading with title
recommendations (ex: myON)

6. Closer than we think!

7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica
• "The Fabrica"
• by Andreas Vesalius
• How has this author and book
influenced online content, and how
have others interpreted the original
content?

8. Vesalius’s life
• 1514-1564
• Born in Brussels to a health sciences family
• Studied at the University of Louvain, the
University of Paris, and the University of
Padua
• Was a professor at the University of Padua;
occasionally at Pisa and Bologna
• Studied Galen's teachings

9. Vesalius’s life (continued)
Broke with tradition; did
showcase dissection
demonstrations by himself
rather than telling someone
else what to do while he
lectured; started to notice
Galen was wrong in many
points of his writings, perhaps
because Galen primarily used
non-human animals to learn
about anatomic structure

10. http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/ves
aliusgallery.htm

11. Vesalius’s masterpiece: the Fabrica
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica
• Published in 1543 by Johannes Oporinus; text
and drawings were clear and sharp
• The drawings are believed to have been done
by Titian’s school (van Calcar), perhaps some
by Titian himself, and are amazing even today
• Text was in Latin and instructed readers how
to do their own dissections
• It revolutionized anatomy and physiology

12. Free versions of “The Fabrica”
• A free scan of the book is available at Google
Books via Google Play
• A free preview of an English translation is
available via Google Books, too

13. NLM (National Library of Med.)
Turning the Pages Online
http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/tt
p/flash/vesalius/vesalius.html

14. 500th Anniversary Edition
www.vesaliusfabrica.com

15. University of Glasgow
Online exhibit with
selected images and
general information
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/ex
hibns/month/sep2002.htm

16. Becker Library, St. Louis University
http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/vesalius/index.html

17. Basel University, Switzerland
http://www.erara.ch/bau_1/content/

18. The Epitome Edition
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30027161

19. Fabrica and the Epitome
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30027161

20. Supported by
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30027161

21. YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5LGCCjZcCo

22. YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhnDcPdS4NA

23. vesalius.com
www.vesalius.com

24. Poetry (and Sound)
De Humani Corporis Fabrica (John Burnside)
after Vesalius
I know the names of almost
nothing...
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/de-humani-corporis-fabrica

25. Plays
Vesalius: A Requiem (London, 1996)
http://variouspeople.com.au/productions/vesalius-a-requiem/

26. Dead for 450 years…but on Facebook

27. Vesalius on Twitter

28. Vesalius Conference 2015
http://vesalius.wustl.edu/schedule.html

29. De Humani Google Images

30. Map the book: Google Maps

31. French translation in progress
http://www3.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/vesale/debut.htm

32. The Vesalius Project
www.ospfe.it

33. Vesalius on the TV News
http://www.brusselnieuws.be/en/video/tvbrussel

34. Vesalius Anatomy Card Game
http://www.kindersleyworkshop.co.uk/vesalius-card-game/

35. Vesalius College
www.vesalius.edu

36. The 21st century
is awesome!

37. What do we lose with e-books?

38. What do we lose with e-books?
• Sense of size
• Sense of weight, heft, gravitas
• Books as architecture (William Morris)
• Page turning (noise, crinkling of pages, type of
paper and its feel)
• Marginalia and fingerprints (possibly)
• Texture, binding, tobacco-whiskey smell
• Expressive, haptic nature (possibly)

39. What do we lose? (continued)
• Concrete poetry may lose its font type, font
size, ink, kerning, layout, white space, page
size, paper type, etc. when being reformatted
as an e-book and/or when the end user
manipulates the settings
• Possible loss of some content recall ability?

40. Encourage students to enter the National
Collegiate Book Collecting Contest
http://www.abaa.org/ncbcc/the-national-
collegiate-book-collecting-contest
Enter by the end of May!

41. Questions?
Rob Cagna, Library Director
West Virginia University
Charleston Health Sciences Library
rcagna@hsc.wvu.edu
Twitter www.twitter.com/rcagna
Facebook www.facebook.com/robertcagna
slideshare www.slideshare.net/cagna