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:)
They are digging the gigantic hole for that thing right outside my window as I type. (not pdf)
So, between that and having worked with rare books my whole life, you will have to forgive my steadfast optimism. The fact is, the problem is not that books will be lost forever. They will be technically more available to more people than ever before. The real issue will become how to find out what is out there. That is already the real problem with Google Books. (FWIW, we are also working with Google Books. I can assure you our books are not being destroyed upon digitization.) "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
Meanwhile, I'm choosing to remain in reality. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
I didn't know that one library in Chicago--a library that touts itself as the only library in America committed to keeping books on campus, but even then only for 20 years, in the face of the anti-books prevailing wisdom (their words, not mine)--coulod save the world.
Meanwhile, all the librarians I've talked to see the writing on the while. Maybe that's why the New York Review of Books wrote an article on the matter. Maybe that's why libraries in American universities are right now up at arms with the budget cuts.
I frankly wish Google books would start scanning old periodicals, newspapers, broadsides, posters, maps, etc.
Of course, I would rather look at the real thing, but seeing it online helps to know what is worth really looking at.
I understand that there is a real problem concerning Google having a monopoly on internet access to certain books, but overall I think what they are doing is a good thing, especially with texts that are in the public domain.
I see this issue tied to the problems faced by the print media in general in the digital/internet "age." There is probably one great solution out there just waiting to be found.
The problem is that they'll have no competition.
There's also a concern as you note with the discarding of paratexts when a corporate entity decides to digitize books, whether we're talking about dust jackets, watermarks, variant paper stocks, marginalia, end-papers, broadsides, etc.
Those huge warehouses that will become obsolete will also house many unknown rare and precious books that are still in general stacks. You can go into any old library and putz around the old dusty shelves, and you'll find unbelievably rare books.
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