The Bookless Library
It is nice to read an article with a good working knowledge of libraries from a non-librarian, though an academic faculty member at a major research university has a different perspective from a public library user in a small town.
I have yet to see any figures on the cost (economic and environmental) of everyone getting all their reading material and information electronically, and I think that it would be best to remember that we don't actually have any information on the longevity of electronic materials, in archival terms.
That doesn't mean that e-books are not a reasonable alternative for casual reading. Most public libraries don't have historical collections, except for their own local history collections, and databases have already replaced most reference books. And certainly the more archives that can be digitized and added to the web, the better for researchers. There are a lot of great local history and special collections projects already being done in libraries everywhere.
And how did I find this fascinating article? I subscribe to a great Internet comic, Unshelved, by email, and they linked to another online comic, Sheldon, which had a cartoon and blog post about e-books.
Follow me through cyberspace by starting with Unshelved for Thursday July 26 2012
It is nice to read an article with a good working knowledge of libraries from a non-librarian, though an academic faculty member at a major research university has a different perspective from a public library user in a small town.
I have yet to see any figures on the cost (economic and environmental) of everyone getting all their reading material and information electronically, and I think that it would be best to remember that we don't actually have any information on the longevity of electronic materials, in archival terms.
That doesn't mean that e-books are not a reasonable alternative for casual reading. Most public libraries don't have historical collections, except for their own local history collections, and databases have already replaced most reference books. And certainly the more archives that can be digitized and added to the web, the better for researchers. There are a lot of great local history and special collections projects already being done in libraries everywhere.
And how did I find this fascinating article? I subscribe to a great Internet comic, Unshelved, by email, and they linked to another online comic, Sheldon, which had a cartoon and blog post about e-books.
Follow me through cyberspace by starting with Unshelved for Thursday July 26 2012
1 comment:
This was definitely a thought-provoking article. I agreed with his conclusion, although I think striking the balance will be much harder than he makes it sound. Loved the idea of inviting the public in to host a major event in the library's space.
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