Advances in Information Technology Are Not Likely to Replace Books in Libraries, UB Experts Say

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- One aspect of the rich and complex history of human knowledge -- its recording, transmission and preservation -- has been altered irrevocably by the advancement of information technology.

New technologies have broadened vastly the spectrum of information resources that augment the book, and also have raised questions about whether, in libraries at least, electronic communication actually can replace books within the foreseeable future.

University at Buffalo librarians say anything is possible, but the replacement of a libraries' millions of bound volumes by electronic versions is no more than a twinkle in the eye of someone who is not a librarian.

"Information technology is being touted on campus and elsewhere as the drug that will cure everything. But nothing cures everything," notes UB archivist Christopher Densmore.

"First, we learned that there are some things information technology can't cure. Next, we find out that it actually cures nothing," Densmore says. "Then, we learn that IT does cure some things, but not the things it was expected to cure, and can produce new and difficult problems of its own."

Judith Adams-Volpe, director of UB's Lockwood Memorial Library, agrees that issues of technology acquisition are dicey these days and predictions are difficult.

"We're involved not in an either-or (paper vs. computer) situation," she says, "but in a process of evaluation and judicial selection and application of technologies in a constantly changing library environment. Some applications will work better than others. Some decisions will stand the test of time; others will reflect our nearsightedness."

On the pro-tech side, the librarians applaud how this amazing new science has facilitated access to, and use of, libraries. You can't beat computer technology, they say, for performing catalog searches, accessing reference material, storing government documents, linking to online periodicals, ordering paper copies of cataloged material, requesting interlibrary loans and directing users to sources of additional information, however distant.

Advances in online publishing now enable customers to download volumes into hand-held electronic books, and for a class, even download an entire course of "reserved" reading that might include books, chapters, journal articles or research abstracts. Although the popularity of this methodology has yet to be demonstrated, it is expected to be part of the next big technology drive.

Digitizing texts in libraries -- 18 million bound texts in the case of the UB collections -- is quite another story, however.

"It would be virtually impossible right now," says John Edens, director of technical services for the UB Libraries. "The time required and the cost of the systems and human resources would be prohibitive, even if we thought it should be done, which we don't."

"Even all reference material isn't available electronically," Edens notes. "And it may never be. The production of electronic databases is commercially driven, so while the full texts of popular reference materials are online, vast amounts of scholarly material are still available only in bound volumes. It doesn't sell well in an electronic format because it has a small audience."

Densmore points out that the archival problems related to saving electronic documents is another consideration. "We know that paper lasts at least 500 years under the right conditions. We have no idea how long the information on a CD-ROM, a computer disk or a hard drive will be retrievable, but we know it's only a matter of decades, if that."

Edens also stresses that some documents are just more useful in bound form.

"I used to tell my staff that soon the university wouldn't need a paper telephone directory because we'd have it online," he says. "Well, I was wrong. Our electronic directory is far less useful to most of us than the bound paper volume."

Gemma DeVinney, coordinator of Web development and services for the UB Libraries, points to the enormous growth of BISON, once simply UB's electronic library catalog, as an example of the changes that await all library users.

"BISON is now the name of the overall UB Libraries Web site http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries," DeVinney says. "Its amplified function makes it a true 'virtual library' -- from the comfort of your office, residence-hall room or home, you can perform many standard library functions over BISON: do primary research, ask reference questions, make suggestions or use it as a gateway to vast numbers of other digitization projects."

Since victory never goes to the Luddites, we can expect the accelerating rate of change to produce an astonishing new chapter in the mingled histories of books, libraries and technologies.

"We're at the very beginning of an extraordinarily exciting era," says DeVinney, "and the changes already in place here serve as signposts to a very different kind of library yet to evolve."