Summary
Kudos to Google for its ambitious plan to scan and post the contents of several prominent libraries. And while some argue that this won't be replacing the world's physical libraries any time soon, I believe it is in fact indicative of a trend that will ultimately result in all libraries going digital. Printed books will always be around in some form, of course, but electronic books and information will be the primary research sources in the near future.
Original source:
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1434442004
Details
- GOOGLE, with whom I spend more time than with my loved ones, is planning to put the contents of the world's greatest libraries on line, including the Bodleian in Oxford and those of Harvard and Stanford in America.
- Another part of me is nostalgic, because I think physical libraries, book-lined and cathedral-quiet, are a cherished part of civilisation we lose at our cultural peril.
- Working away on the economics floor, I could see other students above or below - chatting, flirting, doodling, panicking - each cocooned in their own separate world of knowledge.
- Intrigued, I soon took to exploring what was on these other planets: science, architecture, even a whole floor of novels.
- There is a stock response to my love affair with libraries: that I am being too nostalgic.
- That the multi-tasking, MTV generation can access information from a computer, get cheap books from the supermarket and still chatter to each other at a thousand decibels.
- However, the world of knowledge cannot be reduced to the level of a childā¬(TM)s view of the universe.
- FURTHERMORE, we have a duty to future generations, especially in the nation that gave the world the Enlightenment, to invest in the custodians of our culture, above all of its literature and manuscripts.
- Besides, the desire by politicians to turn museums and libraries into theme parks has less to do with modernising access to knowledge, and more to do with courting cheap publicity.
- On arriving at Glasgow University library, I did a quick calculation of how many economics books there were on the shelves and realised that I could not read them all - ever, never mind before the time my degree course was over.
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