On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 09:15, Sharon Foster <fostersm1_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> I do ILL borrowing, using OCLC/FirstSearch, for the public library in
> a very upscale suburb of NYC. This is a statistically insignificant
> factoid, I realize, but twice in the past 3 months I've located an
> absolutely free, full text copy of a book that a patron has requested.
> Both times they turned it down in favor of a hardcopy.
Hey, I would do the same. And *I* do the same; I go to the library,
enjoy the culture, read the books (sometimes even through ILL,
although books are so cheap these days that I prefer to own a copy in
my own private library because you never know when I want to research
something bizarre in my universe), smell them, look at them, marvel at
the beauty of the shelves (I know I should say "stacks", but I'm a
contrarian, obviously :) Don't get me wrong, I love books, otherwise I
wouldn't waste my time in library corners. I would love nothing more
than to be and work in a library; it's the most amazing organisation
in the world. But not all thinks the book is better than an electronic
version, and the numbers there will go down with new generations that
see the world they live in quite differently than you and me.
Kind regards,
Alex
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Received on Tue May 05 2009 - 19:41:24 EDT