The Library: Three Jeremiads, by Robert Darnton, New York Review of Books, December 23, 2010.
“In fact, more printed books are produced each year than the year before. Soon there will be a million new titles published worldwide each year. A research library cannot ignore this production on the grounds that our readers are now digital natives living in a new information age. If the history of books teaches anything, it is that one medium does not displace another, at least not in the short run. Manuscript publishing continued to thrive for three centuries after Gutenberg, because it was often cheaper to produce a small edition by hiring scribes than by printing it. The codexa book with pages that you turn rather than a scroll that you read by unrollingis one of the greatest inventions of all time. It has served well for two thousand years, and it is not about to become extinct. In fact, it may be that the new technology used in print-on-demand will breathe new life into the codexand I say this with due respect to the Kindle, the iPad, and all the rest.”
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