Re: GEN: Book idolatry

["Roberta J. Ponis" <rponis@JEFFCO.K12.CO.US>]

Dear Karen,

While heavy-duty library professionals, Crawford and Gordon hardly
qualify as print sentimentalists or "book idolators" to use your term.
They met on the Internet and coordinated their writing of the book
through e-mail.  Their point is that technologies survive because they
offer certain advantages over other emerging technologies.  Rather than
idolizing the book, the authors offer a balanced approach to the various
technologies we have at our disposal.

To be sure, Gorman and Crawford acknowledge that some print publications
will disapper, including a number of reference works, short-lived
monographs, and any print on paper product that is used primarily on a
paragraph-by-paragraph basis.  Re: CD-Roms they ask, "just what is it
that people want to buy in 600-megabyte quantities?"  Their answer,
"fancier and fancier games."

IMHO the ideas in their book offer a reasoned approach to both extremes -
book idolators and technojunkies.

Roberta Ponis
Library Services
Jefferson County Public Schools
Golden, Colorado
rponis@jeffco.k12.co.us.