[Web4lib] Paperless society

[Peter Keane]

I find it useful to step back and, rather than think about
paper-vs-digital, think about all of the options we have for information
storage and retrieval and begin to evaluate each for its costs,
benefits, etc. Metrics like "old" vs. "new" are not nearly as useful as
cost to produce, long term viability, cost to preserve, accessibility,
access dependencies, etc. I look forward to a time when we consider
books as simply another technology with all sorts of emergent propeties,
some good, some not-so-good.

I often recommend Linus Torvald's Google Tech Talk about distributed
source control [0] to folks interested in where things are heading.
And it is certainly NOT centalized data storage and digital "master"
copies. If you think about Linus wanting the entire Linux source code
history readily accessible on his own machine and then think about
a reference librarian who wants a shelf full of phone books right
behind the reference desk, I suspect you might see some very real
commonalities.

--peter keane
daseproject.org
The University of Texas at Austin

[0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8


On Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 10:38:40AM -0500, Anderson, Patricia wrote:
> Personally, being a tad on the paranoid side, if the information is electronic and suddenly disappears, it is extremely useful to have a paper archive to prove you weren't hallucinating. :) I am a HUGE fan of redundancy, especially for critical information. By "critical" I mean any information that might be essential in case of a disaster response scenario. Phone books are an excellent example of the type of information that is often overlooked on a daily basis but which become absolutely essential in a disaster or crisis. 
> 
> I would really like to see librarians, as a collective, partner with other service professions to develop an agreed upon set of core information that requires duplication in a variety of locations and formats for the purpose of disaster and crisis preparation and response.
> 
>  -- Patricia Anderson, pfa at umich.edu
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of David Rothman
> Sent: Mon 2/11/2008 10:04 AM
> To: Carol Bean
> Cc: Jocelyn Shaw; web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Paperless society
>  
> And it is convenient to have a horse-and-buggy if your car breaks down.  So?
> 
> On Feb 11, 2008 9:51 AM, Carol Bean <beanworks at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Not so inefficient when the internet connection is down or non-existent
> >
> > Carol
> >
> >
> > On Feb 11, 2008 9:35 AM, David Rothman <david.rothman at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Jocelyn-
> > >
> > > Telephone books are *much* more scarce than they used to be.  That you
> > > continue to use the most inefficient available container for this sort
> > > of
> > > information doesn't make the assertion silly or wrong.
> > >
> > > -David
> > > David Rothman
> > > Community General Hospital Medical Library
> > > Syracuse, NY
> > >  On Feb 11, 2008 9:29 AM, Jocelyn Shaw <redfernshaw at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > I had to chuckle at the quote:
> > > >
> > > >  "'Paper is no longer the master copy; the digital version is,' says
> > > > Brewster Kahle, the founder and director of the Internet Archive, a
> > > > nonprofit digital library. 'Paper has been dealt a complete deathblow.
> > > > When
> > > > was the last time you saw a telephone book?'"...
> > > >
> > > > Having used the phone book twice in the last 20 minutes to answer
> > > > reference
> > > > questions I found it quite humorous.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Jocelyn Shaw
> > > > Librarian
> > > > Hackley Public Library
> > > > 316 W Webster
> > > > Muskegon MI 49440
> > > >
> > > > The Smartest Card. Get it. Use it.
> > > > @ the Hackley Public Library
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Carol Bean
> > beanworks at gmail.com
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