tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4755637818606819433.post4771003266090609059..comments2023-11-03T06:14:28.420-07:00Comments on Education Blog: The Future of LibrariesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4755637818606819433.post-88986507420404487432012-02-13T05:35:54.336-08:002012-02-13T05:35:54.336-08:00You write: "We could move to a library full o...You write: "We could move to a library full of computers hooked up to online libraries and databases which are easy to access and quite possibly cheaper." <br /><br />I don't disagree with the vision, but as someone who has worked in academic libraries for many years, it seems likely that you are vastly underestimating the cost of electronic resources ("online libraries and databases.") <br /><br />While I think the future is electronic and I'd never advocate "books" as an equivalent resource to databases, I think the notion that electronic libraries will necessarily be cheaper than print libraries is naive. Content costs are higher with electronics. Yes, you gain a lot -- indexing, full-text indexing, metadata, etc. -- but you tend to pay for smaller and smaller increments of data (not a book, but a chapter, not a journal, but an article). <br /><br />Publishers (particularly those in the sciences) are forcing cost models and use restrictions that exceed anything we've know previously.<br /><br />(And I only do my recreational reading on kindle.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4755637818606819433.post-90325415886811256152012-02-11T09:29:20.925-08:002012-02-11T09:29:20.925-08:00I am 100% with you and your peers: No paper books...I am 100% with you and your peers: No paper books, but go for the electronic resources. Actually that should be a no-brainer, for all the reasons you stated, particularly as long as the subjects studied are science related. Yet even for "fine literature," say reading Truman Capote's "Breakfast qt Tiffany" is IMHO also better on the web, in this case for another reason: because on my iPad, where most likely I'd be reading it, I can enlarge the font to make the book easy to read (as would apply to many vision-impaired people) while in a paper book, particularly the paper-back copies printed nowadays, the print is so small, they are strenuous to read even if you have perfect eye sight.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com