 |
| www.mountangelabbey.org |
A few days after Google attempted to put millions upon millions of books on their servers, people are beginning to wonder if books are a thing of the past. I know exactly what you are thinking and that books are very traditional, but in an age when going green is more prevalent then ever, and when we have the technology to download full audiobooks to our ipods and 2000 page novels to our kindles, why not? Books may not be obsolete per say, but they are at least not as efficient as they were in the 1800s. Books take up space, are expensive, a destruction to the environment, boring, and also millions upon millions of dollars are spent annually up-keeping and maintaining libraries across the nation. By no means am i proposing that America should remove every library in the Continental United States, but I am saying that maybe closing 30% would not be the worst idea in the world. I know that within a 20 minute drive of my house I can get to at least 5 libraries, and all of which have the same books and same old women behind the counter. I am proposing that libraries combine into fewer locations, maybe make a mega library in the center of each town compared to 10 little ones scattered around the place. Books are becoming less and less efficient with the inventions of the iPad, Kindle, and E-Book by Sony. It is only a matter of time before someone tells this to the old women behind the desks.
Brandon,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post, and I have a few thoughts about what you wrote. I do not disagree with you, I do think that because our world is changing, books will continue to become less popular, while Kindles, iPads and other online libraries will continue to flourish. That being said, I do not see any libraries closing anytime soon. One of the reasons I say this, is that libraries are staples of American society. Almost every town that I know of has a library somewhere, and it has most likely been there for decades. When you think about communities, one thing they almost all have is a police station, fire house and library. Also, I think certain classic books, will always be read in print just because of the history behind them. For example, I simply could not imagine myself reading The Odyssey on my computer, because I feel like it would take away from the experience of reading such a special piece of literature. Another important thing to keep in mind here, is how thousands of people across the country work as librarians and researchers in libraries. Just think about the Ugli, and how many people work in that giant house of books. I agree with you that libraries will slowly fade in terms of popularity, but I do not know if they will ever fall off the map completely.
think about it this way...at one point the odyssey was only told via word of mouth, how do you think people felt that they would have to read it on paper instead of hearing it? Society adapts to the technology it is presented with.
ReplyDeleteTyler,
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a very interesting point. I also cannot imagine reading classics on a computer. That being said, it is a proven fact that when people read articles etc. on a computer, they take in a lot less information than if they did if they read it on paper. Reading on paper also gives people the ability to make notes so they can fully question and understand what they are reading.
Also, Brandon- if you were to close libraries- what would you do with the workers employed there and the hundreds of books in the libraries? In my opinion, the thousands of people losing their jobs is worse than you seeing a couple of libraries while driving around town.