Libraries are one of the great institutions of the last millennium, but they are frequently politically decentred and intellectually marginalised. The recent Double-Fold crisis, triggered by Nicholson Baker's book, has again raised questions about the function of libraries. Is access for readers to information the primary task for librarians, or should preservation be the over-riding goal? This article — which is actually a thinking piece — affirms a culturally sensitive perspective on digitisation, showing how the privatisation of information delivery will have startling consequences for both research and the act of reading.
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References
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BrandJ.1999, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility, Basic Books, New York.
