[WEB4LIB] next big thing?

[Samuel Mcdonald]

Big things:
- e-ink/paper, ebooks that feel like regular books..and can get content by
subscription wirelessly

- something like a napster model of distribution

- tremedously concentrated batches of information on DVD's  e.g. 10,000+
American History books, documents, journals, bibligraphies, oral archives,
image galleries..done serially or topically (the Roaring 20's..all related
documents from the 1970's..with updates done by decade and every 2
years!?)...if you specialized in the field what would you pay?  $500.00
for such a disc...$5,000?  (I read once that a double sided, double
density DVD (~17+Gigs) is equivalent to something like a stack of phone
books like 112 stories high (a lot'a books!)

-thinking way out...data havens with virtual collectives that build their
own virtual libraries (either legally, illegally or more likely
..negligently)..think Los Alamos Physics stuff x10 (make your own DVD!)

of course these are not necessarily technologies that Libraries adapt and
buy into..more of a competitive sort of thing..of course someone has to
index the material whether it is wirelessly delivered or on a DVD

Reminds me a quote I read in a cyberpunk book once (Heavy Weather I
think), (paraphrased)
"They'll get my 2017 Library of Congress (DVD) when they peel it out of
cold dead hands!"

I believe that there are some schools that are prototyping services in
which they make a DVD with ALL textbooks, syllabi etc for the whole year for
particular programs.

..what next after that?   holodecks?   how about one UN sponsored
worldwide, multilingual library with millions of e-books free (merely
because you are a carbon-based lifeform on earth?)

-Sam

On Tue, 20 Feb 2001, Drew, Bill wrote:

> What will be the next "big thing" in information delivery that librarians
> should watch out for?  I am thinking in terms of things of such import as
> the World Wide Web and gopher.  Both changed how we deliver information.
> ___________________ 
> Wilfred (Bill) Drew 
> Associate Librarian, Systems and Reference 
> SUNY Morrisville College Library 
> drewwe at morrisville.edu 
> Home: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/ 
> Not Just Cows: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/njc/ 
> Library: http://www.morrisville.edu/library/ 
> Have Laptop -- Will Travel.
> "The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!" --
> Author Unknown
> 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samuel J. McDonald                                smcdon at rci.rutgers.edu
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