Today is a travel day. Thought I would post this article by Neil Gaiman titled “Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming“. The question I continue to wonder about is with the digitization of media, will the physical spaces we call “libraries” continue to be necessary? I can see the “library of the future” consisting of a computer server (and this need not be localized) and an office with cubicles where librarians spend their day fielding online queries. I personally would miss the sensual wonder of wandering the stacks and the serendipitous discoveries, but that may not mean much to others.
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I think it does matter a lot to people because it represents community. There’s a real resurgence of independent businesses at the moment as people care where their money is going now. And the more things become digital, the more we crave a physical relationship with the world. Now I don’t mean to be disingenuous by plugging something I’m working on, but check out Dawn of the Unread. It hopes to achieve a marriage between the digital and analogue by using digital media to direct people to physical buildings like bookshops and libraries.