Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
More readings for my essay - F.W. Lancaster Towards paperless information systems (1978) sketches out a vision of scientific information distribution in 2000 AD that is very close to what actually happened - although his model is a bit more organised. Given that he was writing before GUIs or word processing programmes, his vision of scientists with terminals in their offices, writing reports in electronic format and able to edit them, and then depositing them in electronic storage systems, with a peer-review process, is very close to what happened. OK, print isn't dead, but people were claiming it would be right into the late 1990s (or indeed last month, at my work).

Unintentionally funny is this quote on p. 121 'the system is intended to provide for electronic access to all types of documents read for their information value but is not intended to replace print on paper for items read solely for recreational purposes. Playboy, for example, is unlikely to be enhanced by soft copy display'.

Priceless!

| posted by Simon at 6:34 pm