Reflections on Life, Liberty and Library Science

E-readers are all the rage these days. From the Amazon Kindle and its electronic paper display from E Ink Corporation, to the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android operating system for smartphones, society is at a tipping point in the transition from print to digital media consumption. Mobile computing devices are closer than ever to delivering the “pleasant” experience of reading a printed book, and the imminent arrival of network-enabled (Wi-Fi AND 3G) Kindle-type devices may further hasten this metamorphosis.

Soon we will be able to fit an entire library of books in our backpack or even our pockets. Are libraries prepared for this brave new world?

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In the opening paragraphs of Chapter 1 of Ambient Findability, Peter Morville exhibits an unnatural fondness for his Palm Treo 600, which he uses to demonstrate that “findability serves as a useful lens for seeing where we’ve been and what lies ahead” on the “emerging shoreline that connects the land of atoms and the sea of bits.”

Modern masonry, courtesy of Palm, Inc.