Ok, so we had the iPad moment. What’s changed? Lots. The iPad itself was, in truth, disappointing for publishers. Beautiful, sure, but not very helpful. It wasn’t multifunctional and it wasn’t backward compatable with much stuff either (I can’t be the only person still using OS 10.4?) But, like Apple’s previous offers, it was a gamechanger. It established the tablet as a device, despite many people, myself included, wondering if anyone really wanted Job's 'third device'. Apple then let other manufacturers come up with their own versions, the best of which is probably Samsung’s Galaxy, and quietly went home to improve their own model. Having established the tablet, and just in time to catch the secondary wave of adopters, out comes iPad 2. With improved functionality and more features (camera – two, actually), it still passes itself off as the most desirable tablet, even if it’s not necessarily the best. With iPad 2 and the iPhone, Apple has now firmly entered the mainstream consumer market. In losing the geek factor, what has it gained? Well, turnover, and profit, obviously. While Apple’s top-quality combined hardware/software model of Macs retains its market-leading position in the creative industries, the iPods, Ipads and iPhones are now thoroughly high-street, even with their top-end price tags.

However, part of this trajectory has been the strategic downplaying of the iPad’s e-reader function, which is what publishers were most  excited about. Instead, the iPad focuses on portable, sleek, seamless acces to the web and email – truly, a big iPhone, but also ready and waiting for Web 3.0.

In terms of e-readers the iPad moment just didn’t happen. This has left Amazon’s Kindle as market leader, even though it only reads Amazon’s own e-book file format (although there are rumours Amazon will soon be allowing US publishers to submit e-books in the industry-standard e-Pub format). Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007, by 2010 in the US Amazon were selling more Kindle books than hardbacks; today Amazon sells more Kindle books than hardback and paperback put together. At the moment it’s selling 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books, and three times more Kindle books than this time last year. In the UK, where the Kindle store has only been open a year or so,  Amazon are selling twice as many Kindle books as hardbacks.

What can we learn from this? Remember, the Amazon figures only apply to their own sales, of Kindle books, which can only currently be read on a Kindle device. What’s happening across the rest of the bookselling industry? The true picture for the UK is that sales of e-books are currently 2.5% of all book purchases; interestingly, they peaked at 3% over Christmas (did you get an e-book in your stocking?!) Adult fiction is still the most popular category, at 5.4% of all purchases; men and women are buying e-books equally, and the age group 55-64 makes up over a quarter of e-book buyers.

This 2.5% seems like a tiny figure for us all to be worrying so much about, especially as the value of the sales is low – about 1.6%. I still can't wait to have a go though.

Art activiites have begun in Oriel 1 for the summer and will continue every day throughout August. It's a drop-in session and runs from 11 until 1 and then 2 until 4. We are looking at lots of things to do with the Tudors and making models of Tudor Buildings.

I'll be adding more pictures as the summer goes on!

I tried out a printing session with young adults the other day. We looked at designs from the 1950s (on clothes from our collections and in books)and then made some prints based on them. The printing techniques were a mixture of relief prints (like lino but using softblock) and monoprinting. Here are some of the pictures which are fantastic! I'll try and get round to adding more soon.

I'm planning on running something similar next year for adults and young adults (aged 16+) so if anyone has any suggestions or would be interested in having a go, please get in touch.

Come to see the St.fagans bat cam, where you can watch Lesser Horseshoe Bats and their babies. The camera is based in the Tannery buildings and can be viewed daily from April until October.

Better still, come along to one of our Explore Nature Activity Days when Hywel Couch will be at hand to answer questions on bats and birds. http://tinyurl.com/3uv8fyd

Or if you would prefer to get out after dark, book yourself a place on our family bat walk. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=5029

Today, after installing some new Infra Red lighting to improve the image on the bat cam we were able to count 50 or so bats, 20 of which were babies born over the summer.

Last week, a team of bat experts attended a specialist course run by Wildwood Ecology. During the course they recorded 6 different types of bats living on site. Including: Lesser Horseshoe, Natterers, Serotine, Soprano pipistrelle, Brown Long Eared and the Daubenton's Bat.

Get out of the classroom! Join the 1000’s of school scientists taking part in this exciting investigation.

For more details visit: www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bulbs  

To take part complete the on-line application form and return to danielle.cowell@museumwales.ac.uk by the 31 July 2011