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College Libraries Without Books
Groo writes to tell us CBS News is reporting that books are a thing of the past at a University of Texas library this fall. The University will be converting the library to a 'social gathering place more akin to a coffeehouse.' This push is done in response to the increasing use of online research as a part of undergraduate studies. According to the article the missing books will be replaced by "colorful overstuffed chairs for lounging, barstools for people watching, and booths for group work. In addition to almost 250 desktop computers, there will be 75 laptops available for checkout, wireless Internet access, computer labs, software suites, a multimedia studio, a computer help desk and repair shop, and a cafe."
WOW, all I can say is that it's a shame ... there is nothing like books when it comes to learning; it's not easy to highlight, markup and take notes on a public computer or a loaned out laptop.
For shame, UT - a bad start onto a dangerous slippery slope.
Have they guaranteed that every piece of printed matter in the library is available in electronic format, equally easy to access, before doing this?
If not it seems like a move to effectively rob students of necessary learning resources.
Surely people wanting to study in a library are more interested in access to good materials than in a coffeeshop environment which they can get elsewhere easily.
Then again, no doubt the university will make a shed load of money from the coffee, etc.
For tech subjects, there's nothing like Google.
For tech subjects.
Get into the real world, of detailed data though -- suddenly, all the detailed data is in the literature. We must find a way to expose that data to the new mechanisms of search -- searching indices of books in the Dewey Decimal System is over, and it's now a matter of factual extinction vs. getting the data out there.
Guess I'll have to take a trip back to the old alma mater some day to take a look at this thing. Back when I was there, Flawn Academic Center was still called the "Undergraduate Library", though it was already undergoing the early stages of this transition. The UGL (nicknamed the "UGLy") was the least user-friendly of the libraries on campus, and people tended to hang and study in the larger and more cozy PCL. The FAC was then transitioning to more computer labs and such.
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
People talk about "1984" all the time, but I think Ray Bradbury was more on the mark. Every day we get closer to the world described in "Fahrenheit 451".
Unfortunately, if you try to tell people about this, they get all confused due to that recent documentary (which stole the name).
I went to the University of Texas, and their library was always inspiring. Their libraries were huge. I remember checking out a 300 page book on moth's probiscus... I don't think that kind of information is available online, at least not anywhere near as in depth... Atleast to me, this is a huge disappointment...
WANNAWIKI Wannawiki WannaWiki WANNAWIKI!
This seems odd to me. After receiving an Honorable Mention from Playboy in their "America's Best Party Schools" list in 2002, one would think they'd try to turn that reputation around. I mean sure, Internet research is all well and good, but nothing will ever replace a long boring Saturday holed up in the library with a stack of books.
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Am I the only one bothered by this? Although the internet is very useful for finding information quickly, I wouldn't go to the scale of turning a library into a social setting by removing books and making it internet-oriented; books are essential, and I find it much more comfortable to read a book in a chair rather than onscreen at my computer on a website configured in an awkward way that makes it difficult to read.
Constantly printing material is rather annoying, in my opinion, and I couldn't stand it at my High School. We were doing something similar - a Virtual Library it was called - and there were only two rows of books. Not many people used the library. As internet-oriented as I am, I still went to the Public Library instead of that useless Virtual Library.
Who knows, though. Only time will tell, but I'm getting the feeling it isn't a good thing.
Fun Zoid RPG
This is sick. I'm sorry, but it is. There is *NOTHING* on the web that can compare, in both depth and breadth, to a well stocked research library. Use the internet to get quick, on-point information - a particular stat or an overview of something; you go to a library if you want to spend a lot of time doing some in depth study with materials that far outclass what you are going to find on the web.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
...but sometimes you find that the original source for some material is in a text published thirty (or sixty, or even more) years ago that simply cannot be found online. While you may be able to hit the online journals for current research, there's no substitute for citing the fundamentals, and you can't honestly cite a work without even taking a moment to skim through it first.
So, until a university scans all of its book collection for online perusal, this is a step in the wrong direction.
why? my school's (cal poly slo) library has 2 labs with about 100 computers, we have laptops available, and lots of tables, group rooms, and comfy chairs.
we also have 4 stories of books above that.
you're telling me a cal state school has a bigger library than UT?
I just found the box to change my sig. Um.... [timeless witticism].
Have they guaranteed that every piece of printed matter in the library is available in electronic format, equally easy to access, before doing this?
The books were just moved to other libraries on campus.
From TFA:
"This summer, 90,000 volumes were transferred to other collections in the campus's massive library system."
Ludwig Wittgenstein
The actual press release from UT:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/about/news/fac.html
Even though the undergraduate library apparently had 90,000 volumes there, NO ONE I KNOW used it as an actual-book library. Practically all the useful real books are at the main campus library (Perry-Castaneda), not the UGL. First floor of the UGL had magazines. Second floor had a pretty large and useful computer lab. Third floor had mostly media for checkout (CDs, DVDs, etc.). There were some shelves of books there, but very, VERY rarely did I ever need one of them. The fourth floor was cordoned off and had some art pieces in storage that would go to the Ransom Center elsewhere on campus.
It makes a lot of sense to move those few volumes that were actually at the UGL to the other libraries. This creates a lot more room at the UGL/FAC for study areas, which were pretty lacking.
So, while the blaring headlines make it sound like a big deal, from the point-of-view of a UT student (going on five years now and counting, woo hoo), this isn't that big of a deal.
So... a book that's too old and fragile to be scanned, you're going to put in a library where the general public (relatively speaking) have unsupervised access?
If anything, it IS the old and fragile books that most desperately need to be digitized to be preserved and given a wider audience.
Regards,
Spock_NPA
They may have given the books away to other libraries in the system, but I have a feeling that when they say "software suites", they are including the digitized versions of the books they are eliminating.
Information is not a static thing, and the progress from static books to dynamic online resources is a reaction to that. However, there is still value in understanding what people believed back before the "curent truth" was understood. Spontaneous Generation, a defunct theory of abiogenesis, was once the prevailing theory of germs. Now we know better and have better theories to explain the phenomenon. But does that mean that the thought processes of those early medical pioneers were wrong or only incomplete?
An older book which contains the original theory as it was understood to be correct at the time will present the evidence with a positive bent. Any modern book will only present it with a desultory tone.
Our understanding of the world grows all the time, and books are excellent in recording these things for posterity. The internet, on the other hand, is designed around change. It does not make sense to keep an out-dated theory around, as it just takes up disk space and bandwidth. So there is a chance that we may lose little bits of historical knowledge here and there, and all that adds up.
Of course, it happens with books as well. However with books, the texts are printed once and forever and will contain its information until it is physically destroyed. Bits on a web server can be wiped out with just a command.
Which is why I don't think that they are getting rid of the book information, just the physical copies. It makes sense to keep the digitized copies available for research purposes, even if they may contain old and outdated information.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
Books are simply more comfortable to read. With a computer, it's you that has to move around it to be in the right place to read. With a book, you can carry it around, drop it, tilt it any which way you please, read it in bed, read it on the crapper. The book is completely silent, and is pretty resistent to a lot of things that would destroy a laptop. Books can also fit way more information on one page at a higher resolution.
its because the funding was cut on the UGL
its sad that they are proclaiming that this was the plan all along though
there were protests all over campus last semester to keep the library the way it was.
the large library (the one that most people used if they were using books) is still there.
to tell you the truth i didnt know a single person who used the UGL, so maybe this will end up being a nice fix to something that could have been just bulldozed instead.
*shrug*
i get back to campus in 3 days, so i guess i'll find out then
The undergraduate library at UT hardly has any books anyway. It's basically a place where students go to study. I have never heard of anyone going to find a book there. They don't have research journals or anything like that. There are something like 15 other libraries on campus that have all the books and journals (eg. Life Sciences Library, Engineering Library, Main PCL Library, etc.).
Whenever I have to read a large computer document, I print it out; they weigh less than a laptop, can be easily stored in a bookshelf and I can store more books in bookshelves than I will ever be able to read.
They also allow me to make notes, put markers, read anywhere, any time and even without electricity. They also allow me to keep both the text and my own work next to eachother at the same time without having to buy a second laptop.
Reading from the other comments on this topic, I gather that atleast 90% of the populace still prefers paper to screen reading for these and other reasons.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Tell us why you like how a book feels in your hand. Also tell me why its more important for a book to feel right than to have dozens of books in a PDA?
I honestly don't like reading from a PDA screen, but its a lot lighter than carrying books around.
What they are talking about is not removing the books from the UT library system. What they are talking about is, basically, converting a single undergraduate library into a student center, because undergrad libraries are no longer necesary in most places.
See, back in the Bad Old Days, undergrads were sort of like roaches. You wanted them out of sight, and you certainly didn't want them anywhere important. So they weren't permitted in the stacks at university libraries. Instead, you filled out a form and gave it to a librarian, and they brought you the book you requested. Fill out the form wrong and get the wrong book? Fill out another form. All this to prevent those scalliwag undergrads from mussing the stacks.
In the 50's, Harvard had what was (at the time) a revolutionary idea: don't just keep undergrads out of the stacks- quarantine them! They built Lamont library, the nations first undergraduate library. The shelves were filled with the sort of intro-level books on topics that undergrads were likely to research for their classes. There was a recreational reading collection, and rooms for group study. The undergrads got to browse the books and had a place to gather. The grad school and departmental libraries didn't have to interact with undergrads. Everyone was happy.
Since those heady days, things have changed a bit. Many university systems have replaced cantankerous old librarians and card catalogues with computer-indexed search systems, and English majors employed part-time to damage the bar code scanner. Many schools have open stacks now, and have opened all their libraries to undergraduates. Furthermore, the growth of collections means that more and more a dedicated undergraduate library can't house all the books that an undergrad might need. Now you have your collection divided between the grab-bag of books in the undergrad collection, the in-depth books in the departmental or grad school collection, and the overflow books available by request from the warehouse featured in "Raiders of the Lost Arc".
In such a situation, some schools (apparently such as UT) have found that the undergrad library is more of a bother than a help as a library. Undergrads still go there to study, but increasingly the books that they want are in other parts of the library system; for books that might be useful to both undergraduates and grad students and faculty, you either have to duplicate efforts or force grads and faculty to wander over to the undergrad library. So there's a logical solution: convert the undergrad library to what it really is- a student center for undergrads, oriented somewhat around studying and writing papers- and move the books back into the general library system, which everyone is already using anyway.
This has little or nothing to do with "taking the books out of libraries" as near as I can tell. UT will still have its giant collection of real books that you can check out and read when the power goes out, or on a plane for 12 hours, or in the bathroom without your eyes bleeding and falling out of your head. They will continue to buy new books as they are published, and maintain the old collection. No need to push the bibliophile panic button just yet.
Ya, the headline/summary is misleading but really people, RTFA. The books are not being burned, simply moved to other locations on campus.
It is true that books no longer play the role they used to in higher learning. As a PhD student, 75% of my reading is journal articles, accessed online from school or by connecting through a VPN. Being able to search out and access this material electronically is a MASSIVE time saver. Sure as hell beats photocopying articles in the library.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Does the library really need to be a social gathering place? Isn't the rest of the campus big enough to serve that purpose?
Way to go. You've managed to say the stupidest thing I've heard in days.
You're "argument", if it can be called that, could just as well be used to argue for black people moving back to Africa (bye bye karma :), everyone in the U.S. believing in God, and any other majority totalling trumping the minority. And guess what? It'd still be a stupid argument in any of those cases.
It has nothing to do with the majority of people. The majority of people will never step foot into a physics laboratory. But most schools still have one. Strange, huh?
It also has nothing to do with being cool. If there was ever a time when the library was the cool place to hang out, I haven't heard of it.
Just because you, and some people you know, don't find libraries useful, doesn't mean universities and colleges should get rid of them for everyone. There's still a large number of people, even if they're a minority) who prefer reading books to reading online. I'm thinking about going to graduate school, and not having a traditional library would rule out a school immediately, no questions asks.
Maybe not
There seems to be plenty of reason that a book is better and plenty of reasons that a electronic copy is better. I think the best thing would be to have both available. If every book had a CD in the back cover containing an electronic copy of it I think that would be great.
You could still sit down and read the book in a nice comfy chair, but you could also take the CD with you when you go somewhere. You would also have the advantage of using the CD as a reference once you're done reading. You could also do searches instead of having to look through indexes and page through chapters and then once you've found what you're looking for you could go back to the book and read it from there if you really wanted to.
I can find anything online from programming, to websites on conspiracies. I see more diversity of information on the internet than in any library, and I can access websites from all around the world.
How does a library ever compare to the global noosphere?
They're different brands of information. Yes, the internet is slowly absorbing it all. Yes, there's a lot of stuff there.
But it's easy to think you have all the information because there's a whole lot of stuff out there on the web and you don't, by definition, see what's missing. Don't be so quick to totally dismiss the last three hundred years of work at writing things down. Just because they didn't have the internet doesn't mean they weren't just as smart -- and often awful smarter -- than us. Presentism is a dangerous thing.
Yes, eventually everything will be web-accessable. Yes, libraries will become obsolete. But there is a tre-MENDOUS amount of material not yet there. And much more importantly, information often isn't available online with the context, the background, the solidity, and the completeness of a long book by a single author who's an expert on the subject, a book vetted by peers. And the relative permanence of books allows them to be double and triple-checked for accuracy and relevence. When I want to learn a subject (computer-related fields are sort of an exception here), I may look at websites to get an overview, but mostly I look for recommended books on the subject.
There's a whole lot more to transferring information than simply dumping facts in a pile, and books are a wonderful tool for organizing them. They are guarenteed to have voice, coherence, grammatical standards, and the promise that someone has spent significant time and work putting the information together.
This will all change eventually. But it hasn't near changed yet.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
Moving the books to other libraries and dedicating the space to student gatherings/ studies is not that bad of a thing. Considering that there seems to be a need of group study areas, this might help with that.
We already have computer labs, laptops for check out, and wifi in there. So really, the main addition are the colorful chairs.
[insert generic slashdot meme]
Books aren't a collection of highlights, they're (potentially) multi-page, often multi-hundred-page long works. Maybe you;re able to read somethng that long on a screen comfortably and efficiently, I can't.
The library just isn't as cool as it once was simply because no one wants books anymore. We outnumber folks like you
This is a fucking UNIVERSITY. If university students can't read an entire book except in blipvert fragments, it's goodbye to civilisation as we know it.
But wait hear me out, I said /addition/. Until we manage to archive all these books and come up with a suitable replacement to paper for long-term reading sessions we need to keep the books.
These people are not really adding a library, but converting one into a study building and moving the books elsewhere. Come finals, it's not as easy as you'd think to find places to study the way you'd like. I need a table enough for me and perhaps 3 other study partners, and freedom to audibly discuss/teach each other the material. You can't do this in the dorms, you have other roommates who're either sleeping or blasting music, or studying with their groups on the only living room tables
This sets us out on a trek to discover a place to study, and the library is crammed pretty much at all times during exam weeks. Computer labs around here have all the computers in small cubicles or lined up on tables, so you can't talk all in a row.
We end up spilling over into coffeeshops for peaceful efficient study.
You'd think it'd be easy to find a place for 4 people to sit together at a table and study. But it isn't the case at our college.
I am a university researcher, and I do use Google Scholar and Citeseer almost exclusively. The university is subscribed to almost everything out there, and I only rarely need something that is not available through the web. It depends on the field you are in, of course; I rarely need something more than 10 years old.
And what do many powerplants burn to make electricity? Oil. When we run out of oil we'll have power shortages unless it's prepared for.
That's okay... when we run out of oil, just think of all the books we'll have available to burn.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
There a two different usage patterns concerning books in my humble opinion.
Research, where I really enjoy beeing able to full-text search through thousands of (e.g.) pdfs and online information (through spinweb etc.)
Reading a book I much prefer if it is for entertainment or if I have to dig deep into a subject. There I don't need full-text search and a book has no other fancy features that distract my attention.
I'm a big fan of dead trees. Huge. I've ranted about how great the interface is for years, but this is one instance where it kinda makes sense.
:p. If I can just print that one bit out I'll be happy.
I would never buy an encylopedia now that I've got web access. I wouldn't buy a research paper either. The reason is that I only want to use a small fraction and I'll need it for 20 minutes whilst I extract the bit I need and plagerise it mercilessly
Its these circumstances when I want a tablet like device sitting next to my PC. Its dimesions should be somewhere between A5 and A4 notepad and weigh about the same (200g). The interface should be exactly the same as the iPod. A simple menu for selecting the book you want, and a scroll wheel for flicking through the pages. Left and right buttons to move back and forth through individual pages. There should be a stylus, so that you can highlight text. As you are never writing to the device, highlighting automatically places that text / picture into the clipboard of the host Mac/PC. Its must be wireless, preferably bluetooth, although the majority of its storage will come from a MMC card if you need to transfer alot of books. The screen should be relective, and black and white - no backlight nastiness. I don't need or want color or animation - yet.
Oh... and I want a pony.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
I am a phd student (machine learning if you must know), and I have to disagree with you here. While the net (citeseer, IEEEtrans, google scholar etc.) is ideal for reading up on the latest research in the field, if I want to review a subject in depth I find the easiest, most efficient, fastest way is (usually) to find a few good books, spread them across the desk (along with a stack of blank paper) and start reading + taking notes. Besides, I *like* wandering through the library looking for books - there's something very calming about the smell of old books and the quiet of the library that puts me in the mood for study. Whereas searching through irrelevant junk and dead links on the net just makes me feel frustrated. As for trying to do that in a noisy cafe type environment filled with other distractions (not to mention the unpleasant smell of coffee)... *shudder*.
I like my books, I like hiding and having fun in the isles , don't take away my fun plllease.
:-)
You should try the aisle with the dictionaries in - it's a blast
Try NetBSD... safe,straightforward,useful.
that grabbing and flipping the pages is not an extra step?
My anedocte (it's probably the 2nd time I posted this):
I am a public employee, and I had to pass a rather difficult test to get my job (500 candidates, 5 openings, I was #3). And I studied all of the test's subjects (civil law, constitutional law, legislative process, administrative law) off a Palm III's screen -- translated all texts and codelaw into HTML and plucker'ed them: autoscroll was my friend. With some smart indexing and x-refing. Now, if I was to carry all this with me (I studied a lot while commuting) I would have to carry appoximately 20kg of books, instead of 200g in my pocket. And I obviously have no problem reading from a screen.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
I know the books weren't destroyed or anything - I have RTFA.
However, I'm addressing the computer screen vs. paper books debate. I had a bad case of Lyme Disease this winter - actually, I still have it just not as bad. Anyway, one of the neurological problems was that I had a problem with different contrast levels - i.e. reading bright letters on a dark background or vice versa really SUCKED. Sucked as in gave me a massive headache after 5 min or so. Books were much better in this respect.
-b.
Background: I attended UT Austin as a professional student 1973-1981, and did refresher work in 2003-2004.
First, it was officially named the Academic Center since at least 1973. It was known informally as the Undergraduate Library. Renaming to "Peter T. Flawn Academic Center" occurred much later.
Second, what is really happening here is that the Academic Computing and Information Technology Services organization is growing, and needed space. Rather than build a building, it was far cheaper to take the remaining space in an existing building. The ground floor was computer labs, magazines, and study carrels. The second floor was ACITS offices, a huge open lab, and a large open space. While I was there, ACITS filled the open space with support offices, and also took some of the open lab for office space. The computers that had been located in that part of the open space were relocated elsewhere in the building, mainly to the third floor. The third floor contained what few books were left, along with the media library (formerly the audio library).
Finally, there is one question I haven't seen addressed, and I really wish I was a student so I could get the question asked in public. The library system had always paid for the guards for the building. Library system budget cuts forced the Academic Center to remove the guards on third shift. When the guards went away, ACITS closed the open lab on that shift, because there was now no one to make even nominally certain that hardware didn't walk out the door. There were some loud grumbles about closing the biggest 24-hour open lab on campus, but nothing ever came of it. Now that the building is entirely an ACITS facility, will ACITS find the money for guards to have the building open for students 24 hours a day?
And I should mention that I spent a LOT of time studying in the Academic Center and using that open lab.
When UT decides to get rid of that musty old Gutenberg bible - I'd be willing to take it off their hands. Heck, I'll even pay shipping.
[Insert pithy quote here]
there is nothing like books when it comes to learning
But what if the reason for reducing libraries, isn't to shift towards e-learning, but instead pressure from book SHOPS?
If I were an amoral university principal - or even a moral principal at an underfunded university - I'd take nice fat cheques from the bookshops and reduce the libraries.
A good on-campus bookshop and a laptop sales/repair outlet could really clean up in a university with insufficient library facilities.
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
You prefer to read from a book because it's a superior technology. The book's resolution is far higher than the screen, as books are typically printed at a resolution of 1500dpi or better, compared to around 100dpi for most modern monitors. The book's display is an absorptive technology, which is easier on your eyes than the projective nature of the monitor. You also can't beat the book's infinite "battery life," compared to a few hours for notebook computers.
While technologies like digital ink, which is an absorptive display that doesn't consume power unless you're changing the text, may offer a superior technology to books in the future, the book is a much better technology than current computers for reading large amounts of text.
At least that's how it's happened in CT...many schools met the education goals "No Child Left Behind", but the government didn't cough up the money they were promised! WTF? 150Billion so G.W. can avenge daddy-bush in the mid-east? But we can't pay for our kids' education?
Blar.
The only way for people to actually get educated is for people to have a list of all the best books and the way the library is current set up its impossible to 1. read every single book 2. know which books are the best books Of course, the nice thing about libraries is that they have librarians, who are there to help you find the information you need. At least, libraries should have librarians. Some have part-time undergrads, which is not the same thing AT ALL. So when universities skimp on the librarians, you suffer.
Some background: I am currently an undergraduate in my last semester at Lehigh University.
At my school, there are two main undergraduate libraries on campus: The more liberal arts-oriented one (called Linderman) with creaking wood floors, hand-carved wood covering the walls and ceilings, and a very nice (no longer functional) fireplace inside the massive reading room; the other is the more "modern" library that has no need for a description...just picture every other "modern" library on campuses around America (called Fairmart amoung students).
Now, Fairmart has the majority of the library computers with the main concentration of such on the main floor. Every other floor has more computers. Linderman lacks computers everywhere but 9 in the main reading room. NINE in an entire library (obvious exceptions being in librarian offices).
With all this technology creeping into Fairmart, I see more and more of an interest among the student body to study in Linderman. Where there's technology, there's noise. It is virtually impossible to find a seat in Linderman during exams...even in the "haunted" basement.
I, for one, do not like this trend of technology creeping into university libraries. Even our beloved Linderman was just approved for renovations...what an uproar that caused amongst students. It seems like everyday we are losing one more quiet place where we can get away from it all and just bury our nose in a book to study.
As far as this electronic "paper" is concerned: I hope they make it as indestructible as my textbooks so I can throw them across a room when a concept doesn't make sense. Furthermore, when the switch to digital happens, what am I going to sell to other students to recoup some of the money that was gouged out of me by the bookstore? Surely, there will be some sort of DRM and they will still charge $100 for one book.
I don't print anything for reading. To the contrary, I scan everything I can so whatever I want is on one slim notebook computer or a few cubic inches of 0.5TB storage.
... but truly worthwhile material (NOT relatively transient stuff printed to be read once and tossed) should be printed, bound, and shelved as long-lasting human-readable low-tech backups.
... but absolutely should retain the physical copies. One good-sized EMP and the computers will forget everything. And there's nothing like spending hours wandering the stacks, browsing thru whatever strikes you.
Moving into an apartment led me to reduce paper as much as possible. While reading paper is nicer (mostly because that's what we grew up with), I have no qualms about reading long texts online. The tradeoff favors a paperless existance.
That said, I do have about 3000 books in storage, hopefully destined for a dedicate personal library when I find a new house. Online text is great for speed and portability
The library should digitize all its books
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
If there was ever a time when the library was the cool place to hang out, I haven't heard of it.
;). Ah, the good old days.
No, but they were always good places to make out, and for the same reason - no people (and comfortable furniture
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
That is why nothing can beat a book. No matter what story is told, the book is printed, and it will NOT change
That's why I have trouble with old books such as the bible. Before it was published in print, it was told by word of mouth. As we all know, people tend to change things with each itteration to their own likings. Plus, there was those times where pretty much only those in power and religious leaders could actually read. During those times, who's to say they didn't get changed yet again to suit those in power/religious leaders?
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME