5 Myths About the Information Age

[RainDog]

http://chronicle.com/article/5-Myths-About-the-Information/127105/

1. "The book is dead."

2. "We have entered the information age."

3. "All information is now available online."

4. "Libraries are obsolete."

5. "The future is digital."

interesting - the internet archive says the avg. lifespan of a url is 45 days. 45 days.

"Digital texts degrade far more easily than words printed on paper. Brewster Kahle, creator of the Internet Archive, calculated in 1997 that the average life of a URL was 44 days. Not only does most information not appear online, but most of the information that once did appear has probably been lost."

more context at the link

[truedelphi]

1. There are countless ads on TV about how education should enter anew age.

Kids only need Computers, and the Internet. Teachers and school buildings are so passe.

Would save tax payers a bundle. And what could possibly go wrong with letting kids stay home and be on the computer all day long?

[RainDog]

2. anything to not spend money on the common good!

/sarcasm

[RainDog]

3. kickety n/t

[bainz]

4. Good use of 14 y/o stats

Digital texts degrade far more easily than words printed on paper. Brewster Kahle, creator of the Internet Archive, calculated in 1997 that the average life of a URL was 44 days.

I still have bookmarks from years ago.

[RainDog]

6. hey - the internet archive provided the stats, not me

they're a pretty good organization. Darnton is the director of the Harvard University Library, so I guess he has been keeping track of this issue recently too...in fact, he wrote a book about this same topic last year.

btw - do you know if the stats are different now?

oh, and how's that zip drive working out for you?

[damntexdem]

5. But, unfortunately, #2 may be: All information we're going to get is available online."

And #4: "Libraries are unfunded."

And for good measure, add as #5: "The digital future gets my middle digit." ;-)

[RainDog]

7. I love the internet and the ways it has made so many things more accessible

but it's not all that's out there and won't be and those who limit themselves to this form of information retrieval will miss out on things.

but mainly the article gets to the point of those who claim the book is dead - apparently not.

as far as libraries go - the right wing and the for-profiteers are doing everything they can to dumb down this nation - the attack on libraries, with the emphasis on making information available to all, no matter how much money they have, or the dedication to preserving information, no matter if the powerful dislike it - is just another way in which the right wing demonstrates they're not worthy of leadership.

[SheilaT]

8. I like the internet. I'm on DU, aren't I?

And I love CDs of movies or TV programs with all the extra features.

But I don't own a Kindle or any other digital book reader, and currently have no plans to acquire one, despite the fact that there a few books out there I'm aware of that are only available digitally. Oh, well.

Books can be shared endlessly. I don't have to worry that the digital format will some day change, and all of my old digital books are now unreadable.

I think libraries are here to stay.