by Horst Abelmann In response to Tom Hobbs’ viewpoint “Libraries lose touch with reality,” I would like to point out that new technologies don’t always make old ones obsolete. They can live side by side with each other. For example, in woodworking where the modern technologies have created some amazing power tools, the good old hand tools are still very popular and have their place in the shop.
I don’t challenge the advantages of eBooks with their capacity for more books, their portability, font sizing for easy reading and so on, but there are also disadvantages. High initial cost, dependency on batteries, malfunction, dependency on the Internet, constant upgrades, are just a few.
I started with computers in the late 1970s and even at that time people pointed out possibilities of storing information on them. Since then we had at least a half dozen different storage mediums, from tape to floppy to smaller floppy to Zip drive to compact disc to memory stick. Every time a new one pops up the old one becomes obsolete and shortly after they can’t be used. (I have boxes of floppies I can’t read anymore.)
We already see how the industry wants to sell us new versions in shorter time intervals, i.e. Apple’s iPhone, iPad and so on. Every new version is a “must have.” How often will the operating system or storage system change in the next few years; what do you do with your memory stick with all the books in BC on it when your eBook of the future can’t read it anymore?
I have books more than a hundred years old which everyone can pick up and read without instructions. And I can take my book also to the emergency room to read it there while I wait without worrying about sitting on it and breaking it, or forgetting it. (I can leave it there for someone else to enjoy.)
Since you depend on the Internet to download (and pay for) new books, it will be just a matter of time when they will include advertising with the download the way it’s common on the Internet and on television.
How about maps. Yes, there are all the maps on Google in great detail, but in my experience if I am in an emergency of whatever kind, the phone, power, and batteries are dead. (Anyone hear of Murphy’s Law?)
If Hobbs feels that it is more enjoyable to push a button to “turn a page” on his eBook, a lot of us (there seem to be a lot of people who still like books and libraries) enjoy the size and weight of a real book, feel the book cover and paper, turn the page by hand or browse through it by letting the pages run by your thumb.
There is room enough to have both. Why always get “rid” of the established, working tools to replace them with new ones?
Libraries are certainly not obsolete, even with new and changing technologies. We still need places for long-term storage and access of information and don’t forget the help and advice we get from the knowledgeable librarians who I trust more than a lot of information sources on the Internet. And what if someone turns the Internet off?
Horst Abelmann has been a resident of Powell River since 1993.
