Digitization and Libraries

Recently, I read a Wall Street Journal article online about one aspect of one of the major trends in Library Science today: digitization of manuscripts. There is a wide-ranging debate about this topic in Library Science fields, and I will try to give you a brief description of the situation.

Much like any debate, there are two sides. On one side, you have the group of people that say that digitization of books, etc. in libraries is bad, and perhaps even illegal. It could be illegal because of the copyright laws involved, and how libraries control the digital copies of their work. Also, some people say that there is some inherent quality to researching in a more old-fashioned way - using indices, etc to get what you need from a text. Google recently ran into many of the anti-digitization arguments when it announced that it would pair with Stanford University and “publish” digitized works online. If you would like a nice summation of the anti-digitization arguments, click on through to this link.

On the other side of the debate are the proponents for digitization. These folks say that digitization will better preserve the materials in libraries, while reducing physical space of the collection. Especially important to digitization, and also what the WSJ article was about, was the digitization (scanning) of rare and fragile works in order to preserve them. I think this is the best use for scanning - to preserve books, etc. in a readable format - before they disappear altogether. We can preserve some great and important works for future generations - even when the work has a limited physical lifetime.

But, nothing will ever replace holding a fine book in your hand - not even Amazon’s Kindle.