Re. Death of paper

Subject: Re. Death of paper
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 15:53:20 -0600

David Blyth noted <paraphrase> that paper dox are gradually
being replaced by the internet and (by implication) other
forms of online information. There's certainly some truth
in this, but the overall conclusion is undermined by what I
call the "library fallacy".

In theory, a well-endowed public library makes it
unnecessary to have any books at home. After all, the
library can hold far more information on each topic, and
far more topics, than my home. The price is right (it's
invisible in my property taxes), and there are expert
assistants to help me find what I need. On the other hand,
I have to compete with hundreds or even thousands of others
to get a copy of the information (anyone else encountering
internet bandwidth problems?), I have to go out on snowy
nights (anyone else hate taking their computer to bed?),
and the place is usually closed when I want to find
information (anyone had much luck getting onto the net
during a power failure?), and so on. I can even catch a
virus at my local library. Guess what? I've got a LARGE
paper library at home, and don't hit the public library
much.

Death of paper? I'm not selling my forestry stocks just
yet!

--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of our
reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.


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