Happy President's Day. Today we honor Washington and Lincoln and all the other men who served as leaders. Elementary and middle schools all around the country last Friday probably made silhouettes of various heads and stuck them on popsicle sticks. What a happy holiday for the young. This holiday (and most holidays) doesn't tend to move me. Maybe I am too cynical and know that people are multifaceted. We are all good and evil in varying degrees.
Personally, I am just glad that we don't have class. Not that I'm not fond of class, but it's like a snow day since I though we HAD class and returned to NY for a rehearsal that does not exist because of the deeds of presidents past that hang in our memories and warrant a day of rest and reflection.
But what does all of this have to do with hunger and books? I am hungry. I am in the NYU library. I wish I could eat the books. It would be nice to eat literature and absorb all the ideas that they held. Sustenance for the mind with just a pinch of pulp to challenge the digestive system. Now that is exciting.
So, what does this have to do with technology? Nothing really, but as I look down into the lobby of the library, I notice a mix of the past and the present. The backbone of this place are the books. Physical material that we can hold, open, throw, and basically read. It's paper. Tangible.
Then there are computers to help search and catalogue all of these books. The information is stored away and called when we desire it. Maybe someday all the books will be digitally saved and scanned into some online archive (if it doesn't exist already) and the library as we know it will cease to exist in its current state, but I think that humans will tend to hold onto printed text. We like things that are organic and remind us of the earth. But maybe I am wrong. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.
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1 comments:
I think you may be right, even though the new e-book has come out with a look that is exactly like reading from a paper surface. I have several books as e-books, and I also havr several audio books, but paper and bindings seem elegant and comfortable, and I still prefer them to the text on a screen.
What seems to be emerging is an actual increase in the number of books published in the traditional format. More people are writing and publishing books than ever before. Word processors may have something to do with that. But rather than "saving trees." digital technology is actually using more paper than ever before, making the demand for more trees and better tree conservation even more important.
A pattern may be developing in which books first appear on paper and then are digitized into archives. Something like a film first appearing in the traditional format of a movie theatre before it is transferred to DVD.
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