I just read Rebecca Lossin's "
Against the Universal Library." Lossin argues that librarians have come to hate paper, which is fully realized in the destruction of books (and newspapers, which is disconcerting because there are often fewer saved copies in libraries) to scan them and is symbolically expressed in the names like Kindle and Kindle Fire. This is effectively the burning of books in the name of "inevitable" technological progress. The Library of Congress has taken part in this destruction process by pioneering processes that destroy books. Libraries are now "becoming something other than a library -- a brick-and-mortar portal into the private sector." Lossin concludes, "Digitization, and the digitization of books in particular, is not benign. In both its utopian and pragmatic forms, digitization conceals a destructive impulse that not only eliminates books but threatens the very freedom of discourse it purports to promote; erodes the educational and experiences of those it claims to support; and monetizes, thus commodifies, intellectual life in the name of free access. And all of this dramatically alters the writing it contains, if it doesn't practically erase it."
From my own experience, I have been immensely frustrated with Google Books. For 20th century books, I find them often completely inaccessible or I can receive only three search results in snippets or I can get some small section of the books. I can almost always go to the Library of Congress and look at the whole book, but these books are not available to most people in the world. One day in my sociological research methods course, we were looking at documents in the archive of the university. A group of students decided that the most fascinating thing in the archive was a published book. One of the students said, "It has so much information!" I believe that Lossin is right about the wonderful world of printed books, which we can read in a sustained way. Lossin writes:
The best thing about a printed book, however, is what it does not do. I cannot use it to watch television or check my email. My mother will never call me on it. My boss will never use it to interrupt me. In an age of constant media distractions, having a single object dedicated to a single activity -- reading -- is increasingly important.
To sit and read, especially in a peaceful, quiet public library with others, is truly a wonderful experience.
