Do you enjoy reading from a monitor as much as you do from a page? Personaly, I have never been able to sit through an e-book – ok, so I am old fashioned – I still enjoy reading letters much much more than e-mails…
Read this – College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age
(Link through Blog of a bookslut)
Students attending the University of Texas at Austin will find something missing from the undergraduate library this fall.
Books.
By mid-July, the university says, almost all of the library’s 90,000 volumes will be dispersed to other university collections to clear space for a 24-hour electronic information commons, a fast-spreading phenomenon that is transforming research and study on campuses around the country.
The University maintains that the books are only being ‘moved’ (as opposed to what, destroyed?) to make way for better systems – easier and round-the-clock access to students…
Can books ever be replaced?
——————————–
(Please notice I have very reluctantly placed this post under ‘Technology’ – where else will it fit? Under ‘Society and Development’? No, I should think)
Books which are typically used for reference alone, are the ideal candidates for digitization. Electronic copies are easier to search through, annotate and obviously ctr+c & ctr+v 😉
None of my colleagues have managed to complete a single e-novel till date. Their usual complaints are that it is pretty uncomfortable and strains the eyes. However I am so comfortable with online books (only in .lit format though) that I havent read a single paper back in several months. An interesting book with appropriate font and softwares like MS E-book reader (for a change MS did produce decent software), they can compete with print edition.
However can they ever beat the joy of novel in one hand, pop-corn in the other, pepsi besides and a walkman (or should I say IPod) under the shade of a tree in the river bank…….
ctrl+c and ctrl+v is all what PhD is all about, I know 🙂
I have found most ppl are uncomfortable with reading online – is ok I guess for small passges or for ‘research’ to find out what you are seeking – but a whole book…. ugh!
you are right aout the book and the popcorn(although the latter is associated more with movies)
Picture might be worth a million words but sometimes words can express things that pictures cant.
Ctr+c and Ctr+v was invented by software engineers for software engineers (they are the most extensive users of this feature)
Ack! How scary! I can’t read more then a page or so on my monitor before I have to print it out to finish it, while I read a good 50 to 100 pages out of actual printed books every night before bed.
yes Debra, it IS scary! imagine having to read only from a monitor and not from a page…