As I write this entry, the background music being played is a cassette tape of Little Feat's classic live album, Waiting for Columbus. I've had the tape for at least 10 years and, despite repeated playings, it remains intact (and has the deleted-from-the-CD tracks "Don't Bogart That Joint" and "A Political Blues," for all of you insane diehards out there).
Thus, I am a bit sympathetic to Prof. Fred D. White's sad, wistful commentary about the decline of "open stacks" in favor of an "automatic retrieval system" at his school's library (subscription necessary). Of course, this decline runs hand-in-hand with an increase of the presence of computers in his school's library as well. Prof. White closes his commentary by stating:
"To scan parts of a book on a computer screen, or to have a book fetched for you by a mechanical arm, leaves young people with the impression that physical books are obsolete, that they possess no intrinsic worth but are only space-hogging annoyances that must be forced into the Procrustean bed of a metal storage bin -- if not digitized and then destroyed to make more room for computers, multimedia viewing rooms, lounges, and Internet cafes."
As a technology user and fan, I, for one, do not view books "obsolete," but rather an older, but equally useful, tool in the ever-expanding world of research. Indeed, as far as legal research goes, I often personally prefer the books simply because they (a) are usually more easily portable, and (b) allow for a quicker overview scan of the book than on-line research. In my past life as a procrastinating undergrad, I personally enjoyed roaming stacks and finding books that I did not know existed; however, that often took time that I did not have, especially during finals when I wanted to do anything but study. I also enjoyed the slightly slower pace of life (in the library) that existed when you had to finger through dusty card catalogs to try to find the single copy that your classmate had stolen. Oh, the fun of the grade curve.
However, what books cannot offer is one of the very bases for why technology --and the Internet -- has become so popular: speed. Research -- the very finding of the resources -- takes so much less time now than roaming the stacks that such a statement is now received wisdom. Moreover, you have a better chance of becoming aware of resources in the first place by locating their existence on the Internet rather than by previous methods.
That is the point, and therein, Prof. White may find a silver lining. Perhaps the increased speed in finding resources, combined, if you choose, with the robotic arm retrieving your books, will lead to an increase in something that has always been a challenge: getting "young people" to read. Why? They'll find the books in the first place, find them more quickly, and consequently have more time to read them. I'll add this bald-faced assertion with no empirical citation to the insurmountable list of things that I'll research at some point -- on-line.