Online manuals are fine when you are looking for quick answers and it doesn't involve lots of reading. If there are cross references and the need to double check info, nothing compares to flipping through a book. And when your entire system crashes and you need to figure out what to do next, the online manuals are completely useless. . . . If i can't get on the internet, what good is the "modem won't work" FAQ going to be to me?
I am confused to where and how the line was drawn that esoteric and "little used, specially formatted materials like maps and recordings..." are acceptable to put on the internet, whereas e-books are seen as seductors and don't "inspire a certain presumption of reverence."
In fact the The Librarian of Congress, James Billington said that while "electronic books may succeed commercially, they are 'seductive.'"
I am not sure anything has been romanticized any more than the good old printed book! In fact Mr. Billington himself continues to perpetuate the notion that the printed book should hold a certain amount of "reverance."
Information is information. Those who control the information control everything. If they are (and i do believe they are) a government agency of a democratic society, they have the obligation - nay, responsibility - to share and disperse information.
It is one thing to state that the conversion of printed books to digital format is expensive and time consuming. But to say that they have drawn the line and that line includes "little used" items and doesn't include "greatly used" items seems completely and utterly ridiculous!
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Online manuals are fine when you are looking for quick answers and it doesn't involve lots of reading. If there are cross references and the need to double check info, nothing compares to flipping through a book. And when your entire system crashes and you need to figure out what to do next, the online manuals are completely useless. . . . If i can't get on the internet, what good is the "modem won't work" FAQ going to be to me?
I am confused to where and how the line was drawn that esoteric and "little used, specially formatted materials like maps and recordings ..." are acceptable to put on the internet, whereas e-books are seen as seductors and don't "inspire a certain presumption of reverence."
In fact the The Librarian of Congress, James Billington said that while "electronic books may succeed commercially, they are 'seductive.'"
I am not sure anything has been romanticized any more than the good old printed book! In fact Mr. Billington himself continues to perpetuate the notion that the printed book should hold a certain amount of "reverance."
Information is information. Those who control the information control everything. If they are (and i do believe they are) a government agency of a democratic society, they have the obligation - nay, responsibility - to share and disperse information.
It is one thing to state that the conversion of printed books to digital format is expensive and time consuming. But to say that they have drawn the line and that line includes "little used" items and doesn't include "greatly used" items seems completely and utterly ridiculous!