Why are libraries destroying books? (2002)

See this topic where even tech nerds are idolizing books...

> So store it digitally where it takes up less space. No need to keep a physical copy around.

That's a glib answer that ignores the complexity of digital preservation. When you preserve something, you want it to last long term--decades to centuries. Storing things digitally entails choosing software, file formats, and storage media; and the long-term commitment to continuously copy and recopy, convert and reconvert, and test and retest as the technology you choose becomes obsolete. Plus, with digitization, you have the added risk of correctable scanning errors becoming permanent, once the originals are destroyed.

Digital works are some of the most ephemeral ever created, to the point where future historians may experience our era as a kind of dark age:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dark_age

Yeah, that's my feeling too. No one is "losing" these books. Archival libraries like the Library of Congress exist and are very good at their jobs. (Though I still cry sometimes that the Google Books project didn't work out as originally envisioned).

Local libraries should be serving their community, and that involves making hard choices about spending their existing floor and storage space to make the most useful content available.

In 100 years time this book will become of great interest to historians that are studying the dot com boom and wanting insight beyond the newspaper headlines of the era. What was it that powered this dot com thing?

Why was so much money speculated into it?

How hard was it to write code for the early web?

Where is the seminal classic concerning how to program in the language of the era?

Why did 'kazinator' say 'burn that book?'(!)

All this future historian might have to go on could be the review on Amazon, as preserved by the Wayback Machine:

For a supposedly easy-to-use language Java has generated a range of enormous books. The ever excellent Schildt continues the tradition--even allowing for the added coverage of Java 1.3--in this 1,000+ word tome.

Schildt divides the book into four parts. The first third is a solid tutorial on Java programming with neat code examples showing how various features work. Nearly half is taken up with a detailed view of the Java Library followed by 150 pages on Java software development. The last section dissects four Java applets.

Although described as a reference, Java 2: The Complete Reference is a lot more than a list of facts. There's advice, demonstrations of best practice, asides for those using languages such as C and C++ and a pleasant absence of the justifications for various Java design decisions which clog so many books on the subject. Schildt takes the line that Java is the future for Net and networked programs. Coming from perhaps the best-selling writer on C and C++ this is more than interesting. It's a pity Microsoft didn't read it. Perhaps it would have changed its mind about supporting Java.

One oddity is the way Schildt gives more coverage to the largely superseded AWT, the Abstract Window Toolkit, than to its easier and more flexible replacement, Swing. However, both are big areas; perhaps Schildt thinks you should be reading books dealing specifically with these subjects. He'll probably write one. --Steve Patient

Review

First developed in 1991, Java is an excellent first language for the aspiring programmer because of its growing popularity in the development community; seasoned pros will find it easy to learn. Primary among this revised edition's offerings is information on the recently released Java 1.3, known as the 2.0 in the techie world becuase it represents such a major upgrade. Schildt, a renowned programming author, skillfully combines code, theory, and reference matter. Libraries that already own the third edition (1999) should purchase, as Java 1.3 is the only version that Sun Microsystems now supports.

If the book is preserved digitally or otherwise that seems good enough; the library doesn't have infinite space to keep every old book that nobody ever looks at.