Sunday afternoon, as a means to get out of the scorching heat (and for the quality companionship - I promise!), I tagged along while my wife visited the local library.
Gee, it had been quite a while. I can't remember when I last had a library card, so I was surprised to find toddlers and children running riot in the rumpus room, oldies have a good old natter in the periodicals reading room, students diligently reading Perez Hilton (erm.. studying) and quite a few yoof enjoying the air conditioning while surfing the approved interwebs.
Having a bit of a wander around, it felt all a bit quaint.
And then I found the computing section. Talk about firing up the time machine and setting the clock for 10 years ago.
No doubt the local government doesn't have a mountain moving budget, and let's not pretend a for loop in Deitel & Deitel has changed any, but the in the face of near instant access to first class books, blogs and articles online, merely maintaining the collection at all seems pointless. Except perhaps as an intellectual curiosity - a time capsule if you will.
I suspect the same could be said of all reference books in the modern age. Pointless. Merely finding the right book in the catalogue would take longer than it would take to find and digest the first chapter on my Dopod. It's all right here, a mere 3 (or 33 in pocket IE. whatever.) clicks away!!
Still, there was something strangely endearing about the place - I'm quite sure I'll be back before too long...
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Comments 1
Its all about the fiction collection and late fees...
Posted December 4, 2007 at 12:04 a.m. ¶Comments are now closed.