I understand the theoretical need to have libraries stored on small devices.
  However, with the push of wireless technology (phones, not 802.11
networks), a single repository that serves the data to wireless enabled
devices, to me, seems the most logical choice.  Already, I can download
songs to my phone.  Why not text on a device a little larger?
I think back to the guy who spent all his time focusing on getting as much
reflection and light out of a candle as possible, to make as much light as
he could.  He never saw the switch flip.

Putting libraries on a storage device is a great start, but at what point do
we get tired of the manufacturing costs.


>From: Roy Tennant <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] iPods as a library
>Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:28:45 -0700
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>And I think most all of our users would agree. One of the lessons we
>_should have_ learned from Google is that it doesn't matter if you have
>a huge pile of stuff, most of which is crap, if the good stuff is
>mostly what people see in the first few results screens. Librarians
>tend to be way too focused on creating a good pile of stuff and not
>focused enough on the tools to allow users to get to the good stuff
>from an undifferentiated pile.
>Roy
>
>On Jul 20, 2004, at 10:58 AM, Hickey,Thom wrote:
>
>>I'm afraid that if I had to choose between a few thousand (or even a
>>few
>>hundred-thousand) well-managed items and 'everything', I'd take
>>'everything'.
>>
>>--Th
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: William Wueppelmann [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>>Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 1:46 PM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] iPods as a library
>>
>>Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
>>
>>>This, taken to a its logical conclusion, seems to say that libraries
>>>are about providing access to information to the people who can't get
>>>access any other way. This group of people will be getting smaller and
>>>smaller. I imagine a time when the entire content of a library can be
>>>stored on a thing the size and shape of a sugar cube. To read the
>>>content of the cube you will drop it into a device, and the device
>>>will
>>>facilitate access. As the amount of content on cube increases the less
>>>important access will be come and the more important services against
>>>the content will become. This, in my opinion, is an opportunity for
>>>librarianship. It is where librarianship can grow and fill a niche.
>>
>>I recall seeing some documentary where a physicist argued that you
>>could
>>fit the entire content of the Encyclopedia Britannica (text only, no
>>formatting or pictures) on to an area equal to the head of a pin, but
>>that would be about the theoretical maximum storage density possible,
>>and you would need a powerful electron microscope to read it. If that
>>is
>>true, I think that means you could fit the text equivalent of 10,000
>>Britannicas on an area roughly the size of a compact disc. Of course,
>>by
>>storing data in layers in a three dimensional container, you could get
>>even more but, as impressive as that kind of storage density is, it
>>seems doubtful that we could store the entire content of a large modern
>>library on such a small device, never mind all of the material that a
>>future library might have. Not only can we expect libraries to have
>>more
>>text, images, and sound in the future, but also exotic storage-gobbling
>>stuff like ultra-high definition three-dimensional video, digital
>>images
>>with microscopic levels of detail, a set of 1:1 scale maps of Earth,
>>and
>>other things that I am sure no one will be able to live without once
>>they are possible.
>>
>>At any rate, history has shown that we have the impressive ability to
>>come up with new storage needs just as quickly as new storage
>>technology
>>can be developed. Despite higher and higher storage densities, it
>>certainly seems that the physical space devoted to digital data storage
>>is going up, not down. I have every confidence that we will continue to
>>rely on buildings rather than pockets for our primary data storage
>>needs.
>>
>>I think that libraries have always been about access services and not
>>just storage. In order to access something, you have to have it in the
>>first place, but that isn't enough. Libraries are valuable not just
>>because they contain information but because the information is
>>selected, cataloged, and sorted. A big pile containing every book ever
>>published isn't nearly as useful as a few thousand items, selected for
>>relevance, cataloged, classified according to some relevant theme, and
>>serviced by people and/or systems with the ability to identify and
>>retrieve the most relevant materials for a particular need. We already
>>have an example of what an enormous repository of information with no
>>selection policy, no central management, and only primitive mediated
>>access looks like, and it seems to underscore the enormous value of
>>organization and mediation.
>>
>>
>>--
>>William Wueppelmann
>>http://www.canadiana.org/
>>
>>** NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: [log in to unmask] **
>>** Please update your address book.                     **
>>

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