By Ogova Ondego
Published April 24, 2020
Though technological disruption was already eating into the space of the printed book, the emergence of the Coronavirus in the world in December 2019 is making the future of the book as we know it more uncertain in the post-COVID 19 digital era.
Why do I say this?
The book, alongside handwashing, non-shaking of hands and social distancing, was among the first casualties of measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 in Kenya when seven people in the East African country tested positive for the virus in March 2020.
As churches suspended physical meetings and took to online and digital platforms like Facebook and YouTube, some of them–Anglican Church, Presbyterian Church in East Africa, Seventh Day Adventist, Methodist–that use formal worship formats even cautioned their members against touching, opening or using the books of prayer, songs, hymns, service programmes, and other printed matter stored in the church and used collectively.This, by extension, could include wedding cards, obituaries, magazines, brochures, flyers and thus affects the entire printing, publishing and distribution of physical books.
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“Members are advised to avoid the use of hymn books, prayer books, service sheets and any other objects,” said Provost Canon Sammy Wainaina of Anglican Church’s All Saints Cathedral in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Also reported to have banned the use of Hymn books during services for Roman Catholics in Lancashire, England, is the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster.
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“Instead of hymn and prayer books, priests have been advised to provide disposable single-use song sheets, and to wash their hands before distributing communion,” BBC reported.
This seems to be based on the life cycle of the new Coronavirus that causes the Corona Virus Disease codenamed COVID-19, on various surfaces. For instance, webmd.com says, “The coronavirus can live for hours to days on surfaces like countertops and doorknobs. How long it survives depends on the material the surface is made from.”
The portal, while cautioning that what is so far known about this new coronavirus is a work in progress, gives the following as the duration over which it can survive:
- Metal (Examples: doorknobs, jewelry, silverware): 5 days
- Wood (Examples: furniture, decking): 4 days
- Plastics (Examples: packaging like milk containers and detergent bottles, subway and bus seats, backpacks, elevator buttons): 2 to 3 days
- Stainless steel (Examples: refrigerators, pots and pans, sinks, some water bottles): 2 to 3 days
- Cardboard (Examples: shipping boxes): 24 hours
- Copper (Examples: pennies, teakettles, cookware): 4 hours
- Aluminum (Examples: soda cans, tinfoil, water bottles): 2 to 8 hours
- Glass (Examples: drinking glasses, measuring cups, mirrors, windows): Up to 5 days
- Ceramics (Examples: dishes, pottery, mugs): 5 days
- Paper: up to 5 days.
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So the virus may survive on printed matter for up to five days? And this makes books dangerous to users? So you are better off using digital PDF books?
Was I shocked!
A couple of weeks earlier, I had observed in a post on Facebook: “How can we ensure that the book as we know it remains as fresh, as relevant and as enjoyable as it has always been? Technology, as much as it may be useful, is likely to kill the book as we know it. I don’t derive as much pleasure from reading ‘digital’ books as I do leafing through a book, smelling the pages, feeling the paper on which it is printed and either placing a book mark, folding a page or pencil-marking the point where I stop and from which I should continue reading the next time I come round to reading. Am I getting extinct, too? I cling to my old books–No Safe Place, If Tomorrow Comes, His Needs Her Needs, The Best Laid Plans, The Last Testament, A Voice in the Wind, An Echo in the Darkness, Life on the Edge, The Hopeful Lovers–as if they were Treasures worth of protection. I’d like to hear about the relationship you have with the Book.”
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I am a book collector. I love books. I have more books than I can ever hope to read in my lifetime. And I still look for and store even more books on almost every subject under the sun that I find interesting.
You can imagine the shock when someone appears to tell you that all those books stacked up high on shelves, in crates and cartons, are pieces of paper teeming with millions of the killer virus and, therefore, are useless?
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While browsing the internet on the subject under consideration, I came across questions and answers that, I think, both add value and inform players in the print production sector:
- Will books survive the digital age?
Books may not survive in their current form as reading habits change during the electronic age, an expert has said. Dr Bill Bell, from the University of Edinburgh, said the book format was going through a “seismic shift”.Jul 16, 2010 - Will E books replace books in the future?
Our books are available through all ebook channels, and many also as print-on-demand editions through the emerging Espresso Book Network. Ebooks will eventually replace print books and let me tell you why.Dec 15, 2015 
Will printed books exist in the future?
There is a bright future for printed books, a recent survey finds. According to the results, printed books will continue to be important, relevant, interesting and still very much appreciated compared to e-books and audiobooks.May 2, 2018- Will printed books disappear?
Like woodblock printing, hand-processed film and folk weaving, printed pages may assume an artisanal or aesthetic value. Books themselves, however, likely won’t disappear entirely, at least not anytime soon.Jan 24, 2016 - Are books dead and can authors survive?
Yes, absolutely, within 25 years the digital revolution will bring about the end of paper books. But more importantly, ebooks and e-publishing will mean the end of “the writer” as a profession.Aug 22, 2011.
Well the Coronavirus seems to have changed the world in many ways. The writing, editing, printing and reading of books sector is no exception.
