Is the traditional library still useful in the information age

For the students from the campus out of the library is no stranger, this is the university campus is one of the most frequently used places. Although I have left the university campus for more than a decade, but the building, the bookshelves, the tables and chairs are still vivid in my mind, the library seems to be "learning" synonymous. However, with the rise of computer network technology, the digitalization and networking of libraries has become an inevitable trend. We can now access the National Library of China and digital libraries through the Internet and browse through thousands of books and materials that are already online.

Recently, a newly established university in California, the United States, openly declared that they no longer need libraries, they plan to use the network to replace the traditional libraries, students do not have to go to the library in a serious manner to do their studies, they can roam the Internet, searching for the information they need. Indeed, in recent years, with the continuous development of computer technology, the functions of library services have also changed greatly. For a long time, libraries have been responsible for "collecting, organizing, collecting and circulating library materials for readers' study and reference research", but after digitizing the printed materials, they can be made available to all libraries through the Internet and can be used by every reader.

At the second International Library Conference, the heads of major libraries from Western Europe and North America gathered at the New York Public Library to discuss what libraries have to offer readers in the 21st century. Paul Leclerc, moderator of the conference and director of the New York Public **** Library, said, "It is important for library directors from around the world to seek opportunities to collaborate with each other to ensure the preservation of digitized materials. The purpose of this conference is simple: to help individuals and collectives make better, more informed decisions about building digitized libraries in our respective research institutions."

The technology of digital libraries offers many conveniences to libraries and library users. Once library materials are digitized, readers can easily retrieve them through computers, and the storage space for the materials is greatly saved. Since library users do not have to touch the original works, it is also conducive to the preservation of orphaned books and easily broken papers. It can be seen that the digitization of libraries is certainly the future direction of development.

So, is it possible that in the future our society will really have no more traditional libraries and no more traditional books? It seems not. A professor of history at Princeton University said, "Books can never be replaced by digital chips; books will always need to be preserved."

In the first half of this year, I translated a book written by Neil Jersenfeld, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Laboratory -- When Objects Begin to Think -- which included this account, "Electronic books will be able to do anything that printed books will be able to do anything that printed books can do, but one thing they can't do - they can't replace some of the originals that history has left behind. Part of the pleasure we get from seeing the Gutenberg Bible is knowing that Gutenberg held the same thing you're looking at, so that there's a connection between you and him, or even anyone who's ever been here, over a span of centuries. Complete and reliable copies, though they can be reproduced exactly the same, never convey such a sense of mystery." "Some information simply cannot be reproduced digitally. In the Harvard collection, the very best of the very best is bound in human skin. It is a testament from the ancients to us moderns, a book published after death left by a very few people themselves as a legacy for their successors. The fascinating thing about such a book is that it can never be reproduced." "People come to libraries to experience the texture, the smell, and even the origins of an old book, and it makes no sense to debate the value of electronic ink in this context."

This shows that for a long time, traditional libraries will not be out of the stage of history, it is still the "wealth of human knowledge", but the chip allows another way to store books.