Making Books (1947)

            For our homework assignment this week, I watched Making Books (1947). The film tells the complete story of the mass productions of books and the machine technology needed for book making. It explains every process from the author’s manuscript to the finished book. The film begins with an author who has just finished a book, and seemingly decides to publish the book himself, with no mention of book companies. Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works, such as books. Book publishers usually hire their own staff to produce mass quantities although they may also employ self-employed journalists. Somewhat different, at a small press it is possible to survive by relying entirely on commissioned material, but as activity increases it is important to establish a circle of reliable writers. One should take note that book publishers represent a small portion of the publishers in the United States today. Many small and medium sized book publishers specialize in a specific area. Additionally, thousands of authors have created their own publishing companies or even self publish their own works. With the introduction of digital information systems and the Internet, publishing has expanded in include electronic resource, such as EBooks, websites, and even blogs.

            This film is useful to students because although it is commonly understood how tedious it was to make books in the 1940s, this recaps on the generational differences. Just by watching this video, it helps us reflect on the monotonous efforts during this age of information and communication technology. One can learn from watching this film that every technology that exists today had an elementary foundation. The fundamentals remind us of how life used to be and it’s important to understand the differences in time, to progress today’s society. When one is able to reflect on the past, is when you can truly understand the generational differences contributing to one’s overall understanding of our society today. Although writing, editing, and the mass production of books have exceedingly changed over the last couple decades, hard copied books still remain to be an important aspect in our modern information society.

https://archive.org/details/MakingBo1947