[10957] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Libraries in The Economist
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Graham, RUL)
Thu Jan 9 20:52:06 1997
Date: Thu, 09 Jan 1997 17:13:01 -0600 (CST)
From: "Peter Graham, RUL" <psgraham@rci.rutgers.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: "Peter Graham, RUL" <psgraham@rci.rutgers.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
From: Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries
Excerpted from the email Weekly Report to subscribers to the Chronicle of
Higher Education:
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MAGAZINES & JOURNALS
A glance at the special year-ahead issue of "The Economist":
Libraries in the digital age
Two major libraries, the British Library at St. Pancras and
the Bibliotheque Nationale de France at Tolbiac, are due to
open this year at a cost that, between them, amounts to
$1.7-billion. But in this digital age, are such huge physical
repositories still needed? In an article entitled "Evolution
of the Bookworm," Sidney Verba, director of the Harvard
University Library, concludes that they are. "For one thing,"
Dr. Verba writes, "the great historical collections are not in
digital form and, with some selected exceptions, never will be.
Libraries must continue to store them, make them available,
and, most important, preserve them." At the same time, Dr.
Verba notes, libraries face the challenges of archiving digital
material. They must grapple with copyright issues, for example,
and figure out how to deal with hardware and software that are
constantly changing. Further, he writes, libraries perform the
vital role of helping researchers navigate through both types
of information, printed and digital. "By building new
libraries," Dr. Verba concludes, "Britain and France have
shown themselves not only to be keen guardians of the past but
societies that well understand the needs of the future." (The
magazine may be found at your library.) (January 8)
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--pg
Peter Graham psgraham@rci.rutgers.edu Rutgers University Libraries
169 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08903 (908)445-5908; fax(908)445-5888
<URL:http://aultnis.rutgers.edu/pghome.html>
