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A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 12:39:20 PM   
dcnovice


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Status: offline 		Are books obsolete? One school thinks so.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 12:49:02 PM   
Arpig


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From: Increasingly further from reality
Status: offline 		Just plain stupid! There is nothing like a book! Are we supposed to drag our laptops (those of us who have them...still a vast minority) around with us all the time? What about reading on the bus? Or even better spending all afternoon laying in the grass in the park with a book....your laptop battery last 10 hours? I thought not, but my book is good for as long as I am...over 24 hours straight at times with a good one.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 12:49:23 PM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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From: S.E. London U.K.
Status: offline 		I see the thinking but I can't stand reading PDF's on a screen, I'd much rather have physical pages to flick through i.e. something I can read in any location without a power source.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 1:04:50 PM   
mnottertail


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Status: offline 		Meh, Like a brothel without whores. Now, where's the sense in that?

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 2:44:53 PM   
xiam


Posts: 148
Joined: 7/1/2007
Status: offline 		Makes my stomach turn, it does.  I unfortunately deal with this on a daily basis.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 3:07:37 PM   
Rule


Posts: 10479
Joined: 12/5/2005
Status: offline 		I want one hundred million books, journals and papers for free - with a free translator as well, preferably on some reader that fits in my shirt pocket; energized by solar cells. The reader itself ought to be priced between 70 and 120 euro's.

Physical books will always exist, I expect.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 3:12:28 PM   
dcnovice


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quote:

I unfortunately deal with this on a daily basis.


Sorry to hear that! Are you a librarian?

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 3:21:41 PM   
stella41b


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From: SW London (UK)
Status: offline 		I can see some sense in it if we are talking articles and short pieces of writing as it does indeed make sense and a comprehensive system here would be beneficial, provided of course that such articles and pieces of writing found in the library were verified, which makes the creation of such a system much more challenging.

However to replace everything is complete and utter nonsense. If anything printed matter such as books have even more of a place in society now as they did before, I still have and keep books, I still collect them, I still enjoy reading them.

I also write and direct plays and film scripts and work with actors. We work only with printed copies, copies that we can pick up and hold, copies that we make notes on, I cannot even think about doing this in electronic form, and even doubt that it is possible. I cannot even imagine doing all this on a laptop.

Reading for me is so much pleasure because it's not just reading words in print, it's also drawing inferences, it's feeling, it's sensing, it's thinking, it's experiencing certain emotions and yes, I will read a book again just to see if I can experience the same emotions and whether the words evoke the same feelings and same thoughts. Reading is also learning.

I also have a theory that reading stuff printed on paper promotes listening and thus influences more effective communication skills. I learned an entire language (Polish) from reading words on printed pages, reading magazines, newspapers, articles, books, signs, soup packets, instruction manuals, anything on which I could find the written word. It took me years but today I can speak and communicate in Polish just as effectively as I can in English.

I see the doing away with books in a school library to be short-sighted to say the least. It takes away all those skills, and you have to wonder how such a move would influence or promote plagiarism.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 3:38:13 PM   
littlewonder


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Status: offline 		We are in the process of making our office completely paperless. We should be by late next year. Normally our office is nothing BUT paper but in the end it will make life a lot easier for everyone involved...few people having to physically come into the office, less clutter, everything will be stored on two separate networks in case of catastrophes.

So I can understand the usefulness of books becoming obsolete. There is however a nostalgia to books that can't be overlooked...the touch, the smell, the memories that a good book can bring to us.

Both sides have their pros and cons.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 4:08:19 PM   
dcnovice


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quote:

We are in the process of making our office completely paperless.


Do folks read everything onscreen, or do they print out copies?

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 4:42:08 PM   
littlewonder


Posts: 15659
Status: offline 		They have to submit their paperwork over the internet. If they do not have the internet they can come into our office and use a public kiosk to enter their information into the system.

If they wish to still submit a paper document through our office then they will come in, hand us the paper, we will scan it into the system and hand it back to them.

If they wish for a copy from our office of the information on the screen they have to pay for a copy.

It's the future of how all offices will be within the next 5 years or so.


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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 4:45:45 PM   
dcnovice


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Status: offline 		What kind of office is it?

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:22:27 PM   
littlewonder


Posts: 15659
Status: offline 		It's a governmental office but this goes for any type of office, any school, anyplace that deals with paper.

You'll find that more and more schools are going online. Government agencies are as well, libraries are now offering ebooks on their sites or links to ebooks or you can even join their online catalogs so you can have books sent to you in the mail or just read them online.

Books are nostalgic, reminiscent of better times but as technology grows, nostalgia falls to the wayside.

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:40:04 PM   
slaveluci


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From: Little Rock, AR
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quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice
Sorry to hear that! Are you a librarian?

I am and I'm very sorry to hear it. I'm all for "progress" and I'm not against e-books at all. I own a Kindle DX and I love it. It's great to be able to carry around 3,500 books and periodicals in my purse. It has a long battery life and reads just like paper. I can carry a virtual library with me everywhere I go.

However, when I'm at home I prefer to read "real" physical books. I love the feel of them and sometimes the smell of them. I still check out tons of books from our library system and still buy several myself. What I love about the electronic reader is the mobility and the convenience. If I get stuck in a line anywhere or stuck for a long while in a waiting room, etc., I can pull out hundreds..no thousands...of reading options. That, I love.

Do I think we need to get rid of "paper" books to make progress? Hell, no. Why can't there be some middle ground? Some compromise? You don't have to throw out what's worked well and pleased us for centuries just because a new way comes along. Incorporate both but don't throw out REAL books..............luci

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:42:45 PM   
daintydimples


Posts: 967
Joined: 7/6/2009
Status: offline 		It depends on the nature of the document. I used to work for a univeristy's graduate program, the school was ECE. Admissions applicants, the majority of which are overseas, have to present credentials to apply. Verifying international academic credentials is a job for an expert. Given that many of the students applying were extremely computer savvy, it was decided having them submit credentials electronically was a bad idea.




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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:44:28 PM   
dcnovice


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quote:

I own a Kindle DX and I love it.


I've never tried one, so I'm glad to hear that you like yours. Two questions:

(a) Does the Kindle reflect the design of the printed book? Are images included?

(b) Once you buy a Kindle book, is it yours for life? I often find myself going back to things in books years later.

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No matter how cynical you become,
it's never enough to keep up.

JANE WAGNER, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF
INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:47:51 PM   
blackpearl81


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Joined: 8/30/2005
From: Home of the Yankees
Status: offline 		Classic.

"....Those who don’t have access to the electronic readers will be expected to do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers."

Cool. Illiteracy - The new wave of the future!
So much for actually having to KNOW how to spell words and use proper grammar & punctuation. Nothing like dumbing down the next generation, right?

< Message edited by blackpearl81 -- 9/16/2009 6:49:13 PM >

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:50:20 PM   
Sunnyfey


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quote:

ORIGINAL: blackpearl81

Classic.

"....Those who don’t have access to the electronic readers will be expected to do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers."

Cool. Illiteracy - The new wave of the future!
So much for actually having to KNOW how to spell words and use proper grammar & punctuation. Nothing like dumbing down the next generation, right?


my sentiments exactly


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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:53:36 PM   
dcnovice


Posts: 37282
Joined: 8/2/2006
Status: offline 		Something I also wonder about is highlighting. It's a key tool of mine for engaging a text, and it would seem impossible to do in an ebook.

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No matter how cynical you become,
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INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

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RE: A Library Without Books? - 9/16/2009 6:54:41 PM   
slaveluci


Posts: 4294
Joined: 3/2/2007
From: Little Rock, AR
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice

quote:

I own a Kindle DX and I love it.


I've never tried one, so I'm glad to hear that you like yours. Two questions:

(a) Does the Kindle reflect the design of the printed book? Are images included?

(b) Once you buy a Kindle book, is it yours for life? I often find myself going back to things in books years later.

I don't really purchase books on it that would have images, I'm afraid, but I have seen images on mine (cover pages, certain illustrations, etc.) They talk about how great the DX is for displaying maps and graphs so I'm assuming that works well. The screen-savers that pop up are quite detailed images too. Everything is B&W though. I've heard talk about how they eventually should be in color but I don't see why. I think it would take too much of the memory to do color and it's not really necessary, esp. when you're only interested in text.

As far as the lifetime thing, I don't know. I've just recently read an article where some people had trouble with putting the same purchased ebook onto multiple computers/devices. Apparently after so many downloads of it, there were stopped. I can't say that's been a problem for me. I buy it, put it on my Kindle DX, read it and leave it be. I'm too technologically illiterate to do much else with it

Overall, I absolutely love it. The only thing I've been disappointed in has been the "text to speech" feature. At first, lawsuits were threatened because publishers/authors felt that feature would compete unfairly with audiobooks. Believe me, it's so obnoxiously robotic that it's hard to understand. There's no inflection, commas don't seem to mean anything and it's just annoying. Other than that, it rocks!!!!

luci

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