General Discussion

On the news a 4 year old is addicted to a i pad ..

Books soon will not be wanted, not to mention libraries!

Has the world gone upside down...and

.....would you buy one of these? >>

 

Well I certainly wouldn't expect parents to poo poo the idea of buying one.

Is it something we should all be getting our knickers in a twist about?

New technology eh? Seems it's driving you potty Wondering.

All my kids have Kindle Fire HDs and read a number of books each week, books as i knew them neatly stacked in order of size on a shelf are a thing of the past.

That's what UKIP supporters like apparently - the past. And I know that's true cos I read it in a newspaper yesterday.  

(Oh dear I'm being political again. Wonder if Wondering will think I'm taking the p?)

I'm forecasting that books will largely disappear within next 20 years.  Kindles, Kobos, Nexus etc are all so much more convenient.  Why have shelves full of dusty books which may never be read again when you can have access to an on-line library at any time.  Devon libraries are going on-line so you can already "borrow" e-books without having to visit library, just browse on-line.

I agree with neilh, but think it'll be much sooner than 20 yrs. There will still be special libraries, like local studies and subscription libraries. But public libraries are changing, books are becoming a smaller part of the job and computer skills are becoming a larger part. As a librarian, I trained as an information specialist, but now we have Google, not many people information specialists. Ironic really as Google was designed by librarians!

And on an eviromental reason why cut down forests to print books that just sit on a shelf.