P- and E-Attics?

Bill Keller. "Let's ban books, or at least stop writing them" NYT, July 13, 2011.

James Gleick. "Books and other fetish objects." NYT, July 16, 2011.

Annie Lowrey. "Readers without Borders." Slate, July 20, 2011.

These days I’m navigating a sea of p-books, e-books, and digital collections. With regard to print I identify with Keller's description of a "teetering stack of … books that [he] means to read someday." What with book group titles, library conference give-aways, and promotional copies, I must decide what to read and then quickly hand the freebies to friends and family. Otherwise the teetering stack quickly becomes a fire marshal’s nightmare in my attic. To my family’s distress I’m not ruthless about weeding.

I’m now acquiring book group titles on my e-reader. While browsing the online shop I often download additional non-book group titles. Oddly, I also peruse the physical bookstore shelves, and then download e-versions while sipping coffee in the café. I now have an e-teetering e-pile of e-books-to-be-read on my e-reader. I feel less guilty about acquiring e-books. I don't have to dust, move, or weed them. I also like that my e-reader is more portable than a pile of print.

Annie Lowry talks about book-sellers adapting to the e-world. On the PBS NewsHour last week Lowrey predicted we would still be reading print 50 years from now, even as we see a migration to digital. I certainly own enough volumes in my attic to keep myself entertained for decades. There’ll also be the competing e-pile. Might there come a time when I replace the print backlog with e-versions? Maybe, but not yet. I need to be able to get foreign e-titles. I look forward to the time when my e-ink reader will double as a back lit tablet computer.

In addition to my personal collections I’m enjoying digitized rare book and manuscripts collections on the Internet, although I also identify with James Gleick's “thrill” of handling the actual documents. Seeing the physical items in an unmediated environment is definitely an amazing experience. But with the digitized collections I have access to more knowledge, and I’m discovering treasures I might never have known about otherwise. And what about the born-digital geniuses who will be composing and promulgating their influential, world-changing work in the digital environment? Gleick warns that when we place high value on rare book and manuscript objects we treat them as if they were “talismans”, rather than instruments of knowledge and documentation. Will later scholars get the same thrill when viewing born digital documents? I feel energized by the increasing number of digitized works, even as I realize this new e-world seems to be changing scholarly research. Gleick points out that we will see "a profound transformation ... for the practice of history". With digitized special collections we have new research opportunities.

My “to read” p- and e-piles are growing exponentially. I love learning about humankind’s accomplishments and stories. As an information professional I greatly enjoy participating in the process of discovering, accessing and using knowledge and information in this dynamic environment.