This is so sad to read. Although it's a bit extreme to compare this decision to political regimes that burned books, this liquidation makes some major presumptions about the future. Who says physical books won't be shown (through some research or something) to be essential after all for education? (The digital books promised to spell doom for physical book sales, but they didn't.) There's no going back after you liquidate; at least by keeping the library, the school allows for a future educational environment it cannot yet see.
Going a bit dystopian, it’s easier to alter the text of a digital book than the print one. If Orwell could’ve imagined an ebook, Winston would’ve been working from home on his laptop.
Few thoughts here. I've been curious what will happen when Apple Music and Spotify eventually can no longer hold the financial burden of offering the catalogue of all recorded music. Apple loses money on iTunes but the money is in the devices. Still, what if they one day decide, nah. So, then there are X amount of musical history out there that are gone unless you have a real copy. So a small label could maybe get the rights, then if they can find masters, they can release digitally but then history gets fragmented and the haves and have nots of culture grow. Same with TV. There are rumblings that HBO Max won't be around in a few months. So what if you want to watch The Watchmen in 2025? Will you be able to? Where? I totally get that where there is content and a will, someone will make a way but the dependence on digital and streaming every bit of our lives, is attractive but it potentially leaves a-lot of holes in our culture. We've only started to deal with what copyright and content mean in a post internet age. It destroyed the music industry. It made the publishing industry grow but there is a future where laws could change, rights to works could change, and then access is a different thing entirely.
Well,students will have a great excuse for not finishing their papers,no the dog did not eat it. The internet crashed.I love technology,but being 68 I lived before computer, life worked well,so maybe we should keep some of the old days ,like paper books.
This is so sad to read. Although it's a bit extreme to compare this decision to political regimes that burned books, this liquidation makes some major presumptions about the future. Who says physical books won't be shown (through some research or something) to be essential after all for education? (The digital books promised to spell doom for physical book sales, but they didn't.) There's no going back after you liquidate; at least by keeping the library, the school allows for a future educational environment it cannot yet see.
Going a bit dystopian, it’s easier to alter the text of a digital book than the print one. If Orwell could’ve imagined an ebook, Winston would’ve been working from home on his laptop.
Few thoughts here. I've been curious what will happen when Apple Music and Spotify eventually can no longer hold the financial burden of offering the catalogue of all recorded music. Apple loses money on iTunes but the money is in the devices. Still, what if they one day decide, nah. So, then there are X amount of musical history out there that are gone unless you have a real copy. So a small label could maybe get the rights, then if they can find masters, they can release digitally but then history gets fragmented and the haves and have nots of culture grow. Same with TV. There are rumblings that HBO Max won't be around in a few months. So what if you want to watch The Watchmen in 2025? Will you be able to? Where? I totally get that where there is content and a will, someone will make a way but the dependence on digital and streaming every bit of our lives, is attractive but it potentially leaves a-lot of holes in our culture. We've only started to deal with what copyright and content mean in a post internet age. It destroyed the music industry. It made the publishing industry grow but there is a future where laws could change, rights to works could change, and then access is a different thing entirely.
Well,students will have a great excuse for not finishing their papers,no the dog did not eat it. The internet crashed.I love technology,but being 68 I lived before computer, life worked well,so maybe we should keep some of the old days ,like paper books.
Thank you for writing this. I noticed that the new university president has no library work experience in his bloated CV.