Ok, we've talked about books before. I mean not just specific books (or genres) but books in general. How they are a part of my life. The holding of them, the smell of them, the feel of the pages on my thumb as I turn them. Like old friends, sitting there on the shelf waiting for someone to spend a few hours with them. How books are more than just teh stories and facts within them.
And then I get this link...
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/09/04/a_library_without_the_books/
This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.
The school is moving to an electronic library. The odd thing is that they are paying higher than list prices for the E-readers they purchased for loan to students.
I am not opposed to progress but I am not so sure this is.
A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
5 comments:
Books will go the way of the music tapes, videos, records, cds etc. I just hope the collection of stuff I have will be worth something someday.
I feel your pain - I love books too, especially the ones which have a uniquely "good" musty smell. That said, I have to admit I'm becoming an audiobook junkie.
The thing that bothers me is that this seems to be a change for the sake of "being cool", to be the first to embrace technology in this venue. Why overpay for the E-readers? Why do a complete changeover? Why not make a transition period?
I was a book head back some years ago, talking maybe decades, but the last "book" I read was a down load on my computer, Anthem by Ayn Rand. Not an audio book, but the printed text in a folder. The book,does seem to be more portable, and as long as there is light available requires no power. Progress I say is going a bit to far to remove the book as a form of communication. If you ever read that book, seems the book is going the way of the candle.
Might be noted, the song by Rush "2112" was based on the book Anthem
There are very few technologies in history which do not have more cumbersome and problematic issues when first introduced. It takes time for a technology to mature and really become "good."
When I do lawn work for example, I frequently refuse to use certain "labor saving" tools, because they are finicky, or take too much time to maintain, and time is very valuable to me.
Optical character recognition has been around for almost 30 years. However, for many years, the accuracy rate was between 92-95%, which was tolerable but not acceptable. Only fairly recently have we been able to scan in documents and get a true 100% copy.
All technological changes take time.
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