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Comment by Ruudjah | Hacker News Reader

The article forgets a step; it puts the question "will libraries become obsolete?" on the table. That assumes the book itself will not disappear, which is a very questionable assumption.

My prediction is that books eventually will disappear completely, and only nichebooks will be left. Encyclopædia Britannica becomes Wikipedia, novels become blogs, FAQ books become StackOverFlow-like websites, education materials become wiki's, how-to books become tutorial websites. And so on.

Print books will remain, but as a print edition based on the digital incarnation. The next generation will look to books as we look to magnetic tapes and CD's.

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I've got to disagree. Libraries are not just a book repository. They are community centers and often the location of free or low-cost workshops. They are places to bring your kids on a Saturday to listen to stories. And librarians are a vast treasure trove of information. Libraries also provide free internet to those who don't have it, access to computers to those without. I take for granted the 3 computers I own with the internet connection that is always available but this is still considered a luxury.

As for losing the print editions or print editions being based on the digital ones, I certainly hope not. I can't imagine sitting in front of my laptop, or holding a nook, or reading on an iPad for hours. But that's my personal feelings and often see people on the T with their ebook readers.

Yea, they really need to emphasize the community center / place of learning aspect. Dale Dougherty from MakeZine was discussing how we might start to including a workshop for making things in a library. If you guys haven't seen http://techshop.ws - I think it's a great model what libraries could incorporate into their services to maintain relevance.

You cite only non-fiction reference material in your examples. I'd say that the book has more staying power in fiction. There's just something nice about reading a book to relax, curled up on your couch by the fireplace. That's different from opening a book to learn/check something you need for work.

The kindle and ipad do well enough to replace physical books for curling up by the fireplace, but the abstract concept of the book seems safe to me, for fictional pieces at least. Of course, none of us can really know until we get to the future. :)

I fail to see how blogs can replace novels.

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