by Matthew Dubay

Created on: May 26, 2009

Yes. As we are coming fully into what some call a digital age the era of printed material is coming closer and closer to its end, though its true death will yet be many years off. It is not the fault of the libraries, however, but a cause deriving from the nature of books and changes in our tools over the course of time.

Books have been circulating for hundreds of years, and the written word thousands before that. But do we still use scrolls? Generally, no, we use books. So why should this change in written language be any different? Like the change from tablets, to scrolls, to books, the change to digital files will take time to fully integrate itself; but it will happen, for a number of reasons

1. Due to the costs of buying, printing, organizing, and generally investing money into the upkeep of libraries, the digital realm is bound to take over the written one. If libraries were completely digital then there would be no need to spend money continually staffing libraries, organizing books, putting them back, cleaning, etc. The actual buildings used for the libraries could then be utilized in other ways; purely as a community center, or maybe other construction could take place (there are never too many parks).

2. As our storehouses of knowledge grow, there will no longer be the space to continue to pile up mountains and mountains of books; the digital book, and digital literature, minimizes the amount of space necessary to store all of this knowledge. By taking all the literature in a library, and putting it on a single hard-drive, or publicly accessible network, the library may continue to function in the same manner; publishers could still get money from libraries for rights to the books and the public would still have free access to those books.

3. Digitization saves time by allowing for quick and easy access and eliminating time spent searching a library for a book that you find they do not have. It also takes away the money that might be spent in pursuit of going to the library, such as driving, parking, etc.

4. How many times have you been frustrated after looking and looking for a book, only to find that it was checked out? No longer would this be an issue, as a library would have as many copies as necessary (or possibly a number of licenses for each book).

5. While technology is still developing, the internet professes the effectiveness of the digital word, through its plethora of blogs, articles, encyclopedias, wikis, and everything else it contains. With technology such as the kindle, tablet PCs, and smarter smart phones, books will be easily and fully integrated into our developing digital world, as the success of these devices is showing.

As we can see, for the moment, libraries persist. But being based in a technology that is hundreds of years old, it is not surprising that new technology is rising to replace it and will become the standard for future generations as the digital realm continues to expand. With rising costs associated with space and staffing, constraints on the time of both individuals and institutions, and the convenience of modern technology, a fast and permanent shift towards fully digital literature would not be a surprise development.

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