[Irtalk] The knowledge revolution - University World News

[Hilton Gibson]

*Today, it is the internet that is the true heart of the modern university*,
and Google is the omniscient librarian. Google Books already outranks most
of the world’s print collections and is busy scanning the rest of the
estimated 129,864,880 print books that now exist on Earth.

As Steve Coffman, himself a university librarian, puts it: “It was a great
ride while it lasted,” but now the time of the library as a research
centre, with specialist staff who alone could unlock its secrets “has come
and gone”.

*People no longer use libraries shaped and curated by librarians.* The
generation entering universities today is more comfortable with digital
than traditional sources of information. For them, the difference between
an e-book and a real one is that it is only the former anyone still reads.
And that the difference between an e-book and a website is that the latter
is better.
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http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140820110708346
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