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The disappearance of libraries, to leave us all dependent on our own resources and on the fragile information highways,looks like the beginning of the end of in

The disappearance of libraries, to leave us all dependent on our own resources and on the fragile information highways,looks like the beginning of the end of individuals gaining understanding of physical and other processes. When combined with poor education systems, the outcome must be ignorance. In the event of global catastrophe we won't even know what we need to learn.

moab 3y ago
A bit pessimistic no? The interested always find a way, and it has never been easier with the online databases that the author acknowledges as being extremely useful (sci-hub, libgen, etc). What he is lamenting is the loss of serendipity from browsing a physical library shelf; but it is not at all clear that this experience is incompatible with virtual libraries.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  Virtual libraries also lack the ease of keeping several books open in front of you at the same time. This is very important in fields like linguistics, history, or archaeology. I do like my e-book reader and read plenty of Sci-Hub- or LibGen-sourced literature on it, but I can’t realistically buy five e-book readers to half-ass emulate the research experience I am most productive with.
- emptybits 3y ago
  > The interested always find a way Yes, I agree, those who are already interested or motivated need less help. But to educate most people, and young developing minds especially, brief browsy exposure to unplanned topics is what might create the interest and motivation in the first place. The peripheral glances at compelling covers and spines. The topics you didn’t come to search for and maybe you didn’t even know exist. You can’t search an opaque virtual library for what you haven’t yet seen a spark or crumb of. Hands-on, tactile, flip flip flip, put it back, flip flip flip … irreplaceable.
  - jacknobody 3y ago
    Beautiful books! A section of a library I used to visit used Bliss categorisation, which is just so conducive to discovery!
  - techbuttman 3y ago
    The curious will seek information wherever it may be. Kids are naturally curious about the world, but keeping them engaged with learning and growing through exposure and study largely falls on parents and teachers. We're living in the Information Age (for better or worse), and my kids have been exposed to far more topics than I came across in libraries. It's easy to keep them interested, but I feel like the disappearance of libraries reduces the accuracy and quality of Information. I've seen mine and other's kids rattle off a crazy amount of "facts" but still fall short in problem solving, applying knowledge, etc.
- mdp2021 3y ago
  > The interested always find a way We want ignorance to be fought societally - the people you interact with should be as little ignorant as possible. > online databases Found users are hit with the highest legislative sanctions, increasingly.
tptacek 3y ago
This doesn't even make sense on it's own terms. Libraries are communal resources. If you're worried about information available to individuals, what you care about is the ease with which people can procure their own physical books, not how they share them with their communities.
- jacknobody 3y ago
  I am autodidactic. Therefore I see libraries as a basic education need. It's not practical to have 100's of reference books and texts, but if I've got access to a good library I can juxtapose several references and texts in a way that digital technologies can't emulate. Some libraries use wonderful classification systems such as Bliss, which really appeals to me for the way it seemingly shelves books on different subjects according to the kind of thinking thats gone into them.
javajosh 3y ago
>In the event of global catastrophe we won't even know what we need to learn. It's worse than that since even if we had books the real knowledge about how to rebuild is stored in past generations of doers. Even if you had a physical book on how to make a smelter, or a car factory, or even how to hunt for food, that is far different than actually doing it, having experience with it. I think many people, especially geeks, vastly overestimate their ability to adapt to changing conditions with the aid of books, physical or otherwise. Also, you're right - all things being equal, digital content in lieu of physical books is strictly worse. The oldest words we know of were written in stone, clay, papyrus. Words that were written in magnetic particles only 10 years ago are lost entirely.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

moab 3y ago

A bit pessimistic no? The interested always find a way, and it has never been easier with the online databases that the author acknowledges as being extremely useful (sci-hub, libgen, etc). What he is lamenting is the loss of serendipity from browsing a physical library shelf; but it is not at all clear that this experience is incompatible with virtual libraries.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
Virtual libraries also lack the ease of keeping several books open in front of you at the same time. This is very important in fields like linguistics, history, or archaeology. I do like my e-book reader and read plenty of Sci-Hub- or LibGen-sourced literature on it, but I can’t realistically buy five e-book readers to half-ass emulate the research experience I am most productive with.
emptybits 3y ago
> The interested always find a way Yes, I agree, those who are already interested or motivated need less help. But to educate most people, and young developing minds especially, brief browsy exposure to unplanned topics is what might create the interest and motivation in the first place. The peripheral glances at compelling covers and spines. The topics you didn’t come to search for and maybe you didn’t even know exist. You can’t search an opaque virtual library for what you haven’t yet seen a spark or crumb of. Hands-on, tactile, flip flip flip, put it back, flip flip flip … irreplaceable.
- jacknobody 3y ago
  Beautiful books! A section of a library I used to visit used Bliss categorisation, which is just so conducive to discovery!
- techbuttman 3y ago
  The curious will seek information wherever it may be. Kids are naturally curious about the world, but keeping them engaged with learning and growing through exposure and study largely falls on parents and teachers. We're living in the Information Age (for better or worse), and my kids have been exposed to far more topics than I came across in libraries. It's easy to keep them interested, but I feel like the disappearance of libraries reduces the accuracy and quality of Information. I've seen mine and other's kids rattle off a crazy amount of "facts" but still fall short in problem solving, applying knowledge, etc.
mdp2021 3y ago
> The interested always find a way We want ignorance to be fought societally - the people you interact with should be as little ignorant as possible. > online databases Found users are hit with the highest legislative sanctions, increasingly.

tptacek 3y ago

This doesn't even make sense on it's own terms. Libraries are communal resources. If you're worried about information available to individuals, what you care about is the ease with which people can procure their own physical books, not how they share them with their communities.

jacknobody 3y ago
I am autodidactic. Therefore I see libraries as a basic education need. It's not practical to have 100's of reference books and texts, but if I've got access to a good library I can juxtapose several references and texts in a way that digital technologies can't emulate. Some libraries use wonderful classification systems such as Bliss, which really appeals to me for the way it seemingly shelves books on different subjects according to the kind of thinking thats gone into them.

javajosh 3y ago

>In the event of global catastrophe we won't even know what we need to learn. It's worse than that since even if we had books the real knowledge about how to rebuild is stored in past generations of doers. Even if you had a physical book on how to make a smelter, or a car factory, or even how to hunt for food, that is far different than actually doing it, having experience with it. I think many people, especially geeks, vastly overestimate their ability to adapt to changing conditions with the aid of books, physical or otherwise. Also, you're right - all things being equal, digital content in lieu of physical books is strictly worse. The oldest words we know of were written in stone, clay, papyrus. Words that were written in magnetic particles only 10 years ago are lost entirely.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]