surrogate access
An additional explanation for the “drive to serve a broader range of preservation needs” is growth of desire for “surrogate access”. Such screen delivered access now expands via digital networks to supplant traditional physical access to collection items. This surrogate access, once minimally produced by researchers themselves, is now assigned as a comprehensive service of the libraries. In this new service environment there is need for preservation oversight of the imaging process and preservation care of physical source collections as they are more strictly reserved for production of access surrogates.
i-pod of e-books
In a blink the contest is now between e-publishers and their devices. The old contest between paper and screen is so over. About time. Now let’s see who figures into the future of the book, if any.
sayings from incoming links
Physical books are graceful companions; dependable and engaging when needed and otherwise tranquil. Our exchanges with books have a life of their own and the meanings of reading include that attachment. Create change, find meaning, assure transmission; the print book does it all. The print book is also an opportunist quickly assimilating digital technology and connectivity to transact its own future. But do we need print books? There are many other media including the internet and e-books. It really depends on your preference in friends. There are personality differences between a physical artifact and a screen drawn transmission and between a simulation and a graceful companion. (Forgotten sayings from the WordPress Dashboard incoming link referer column.)
new kind of language
What if print and screen are a single transmission mechanism, something like writing and publishing? In that frame there is little use in comparing the two modes, but some interest in understanding the legacy and prospects of the assimilation.
I would call the new transmission mode synthetic language. This grounds the discussion in communication and the advent and diversification of language, but also positions the discussion out-of-body with implications of artifact and non-mortal and artificial quality.