In certain ways, nothing will ever beat having a book in your hands. The texture of the paper, the smell, the weight, and just the pleasure of thumbing through at your leisure can never be fully replaced by digital technology. Nonetheless, with thousands of free online library sites available nowadays, I have to admit that digital has some things going for it that printed paper simply doesn't. Information is so accessible, so easy to find, and so convenient that it inspires wonder.
With a good free online library, I can now do the work of a whole afternoon in one hour. When I used to have to always go to the public library to check out reference books, it could take me hours and hours to find what I needed. I would have to go to the card catalog, look up the books, go to the proper section of the library, and keep searching until I found exactly what I needed. With online free libraries, however, all I have to do is type in the subject, title, or keywords that takes me right to the book. I don't have to actually go to the library, I don't have to look through the shelves, and I don't have to check the books out. I save several steps, thus reducing the amount of time everything takes.
Of course the public library is still the best place for certain sorts of things. There are many different books that will never be in free online libraries, or least won't be there within the next 50 years or so. Some of them are copyrighted, whereas others just aren't of a broad enough interest to be included. Unless the copyright laws changed drastically and a whole lot of people become very interested in scanning books into the computer, the free online library is unlikely to replace print libraries anytime soon.
Nonetheless, free online libraries already have replaced the public library for certain types of research. Nearly everyone I know finds background material at a free online library. If all you need is the basic facts about something, there's just no reason to go actually find a book when you can find the most up to date information online very quickly. I think this is the way the trend is going to continue to go. Academic libraries will be the place to go for specialized information, but more and more common basic sorts of info will be made available for free online.
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