The $100 laptop closer to reality

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

Anthony Gabrielson writes:
| On Thu, 29 Sep 2005, Gordon Marx wrote:
| > Please, PLEASE, find me somewhere that some university administrator
| > says "Undergraduate libraries are obsolete." I'll even take just one,
| > rather than the "many" you claim.
|
| Since you only asked for one:
| http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/23/tech/main791462.shtml

The "libraries are obsolete" idea is really a parody of  what's  been
happening,  from  people  who  don't  understand the changes that are
underway. It's based on the idea that a library is nothing but a book
collection.  It's hard to find such libraries nowadays.

And, of course, that article doesn't quite state  anything  quite  as
extreme  as  "libraries  are  obsolete".   They just acknowledge that
alternatives are developing. In recent decades, librarians themselves
have moved in the same direction. It's now difficult to find a public
library that doesn't have audio and video material for checkout. Most
also have computers with internet connections. Physical card catalogs
have mostly  disappeared,  and  have  been  replaced  with  networked
computers,  making it easy to learn which libraries have a particular
book.  Many libraries  are  cooperating  with  efforts  like  Project
Gutenberg  and wikibooks.  Rare books are more and more being scanned
and the images put online.  And on and on.

Eventually, we'll just have one big online archive.  But we're a long
way from that right now.

The idea that the old publishing industries are fighting it is  based
on a lot of truth.  Many publishers have long considered libraries to
be centers of copyright violation and profit loss.   Such  publishers
deserve what is happening to them.