Electronic libraries. and paperless office -Reply

[Charles P. Hobbs]

On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, Steve Cramer wrote:

> New technology and new products are not very important
> in the development of the paperless office. More important
> is *changing the way people work, organize, and learn*.
> It's much easier to develop new technology than to
> develop new ways of living to utilize that new technology.
> 
> Look at the example of "smart cars" and "smart roads" --
> the cars run the same way (internal combustion) over the
> same land-gobbling, asphalt-freeways, you just have traffic
> monitoring systems and computer-controlled cars
> involved. There's little talk of re-designing cities or
> developing more practical mass transportation.

It all boils down to personal convenience.

A parallel can be drawn: most of the public transit facilities
being built and operated today tend to attract (what we in the
industry call "choice" riders--those who would otherwise drive)
for certain types of trips (commuting, or perhaps short trips in
a downtown area) only. On most other trips, people that can drive, do.

In the library, non-print information sources (CD's, microforms,
the Internet, etc.) tend to be used more for particular types of 
information gathering activity (e.g. research), somewhat less (if at
all) for other types (e.g. recreational reading. There are not
too many romance novels on microform!).

Barring some *extrordinary* technological advance, neither the book,
nor the personal automobile is going away anytime soon . . .

> 
> Anyway, the choice is *not* between paper and computer
> moniters. The future information displays system will be a
> combination of printing and computer monitors:
> electronic-ink, or e-ink, which combines the portability,
> readability, and (hopefully) durability of paper with the
> storage capacity and networking capability of computers.


That I'd like to see. How would such a system look like. 
(I'm envisioning something like an LCD screen, but I feel somewhat
limited by my own imagination at this time).