Good article. And he's completely right, at least for the industrial countries. The universities are just waiting to get rid of books. Most of my scientific journals are now online, since the library is running out of space and since it's a much better medium for a changing field. Students are tired of toting around notebooks and books in a bookbag. As soon as we have a functional "reader" that REALLY works and a convenient electronic note taker (try taking noters from an organic chemistry lecture on a laptop) that the switch to all-electronic course will be quick. If faculty would actually transfer all of their notes to electronic media, the students wouldn't even have to take any notes. Or come at all. As the price of a college education in the US keeps rising, the possibility of the Internet "distance-learning" E-degree is increasingly more attractive.
This all becomes more likely when the books go away, and the biggest reason was given in this article. My university already has a network, and last year the chemistry dept. spent $14,000 on copying/printing. Steven Desjardins Department of Chemistry Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA 24450 (540) 458-8873 FAX: (540) 458-8878 [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/30/03 07:30PM >>> Mike Johnston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >The only thing I have left are books. Fortunately, books endure: one >lifetime is not long enough to see them eclipsed. However, if the situation >with books goes like cars, stereos, movies, and cameras, pretty soon all new >books will be paperbacks and most books with any literary merit will only be >"published" online. Yuuuuuuuck! Did you ever read Time Magazine editor Daniel Okrent's Columbia University lecture titled "The Death of PRINT?" http://indigo.ie/~liztai/OLDSITE/elizabeth/deathofprint.htm -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
