Changes in Time

Posted by Raul on May 7, 2010

 

 

Some time ago it was announced that several libraries in the Denver area will be closed due to a reduction in budget because of the actual economy.

My first thought was about the lost of knowledge opportunities for the younger generations. If libraries are closed then the preservation of knowledge would be reduced.

Then just the other day, while riding with the scooter club, and after stopping outside a library to see some sculptures, I overheard one of the younger members, a fellow in his 20’s, mention that he has never been in a library.

My first thought was that he was joking and I even laughed, but then he went on to explain that every time he needed information of any kind he just surfed the net and checked the almost unlimited list of websites that would provide the information he needed.

That situation made me realize that the times have changed so much that what I used to think about the importance of the continued existence of libraries as a way to preserve knowledge might not be any more, instead, the whole system we were used to could be transformed into something that we, the older, do not really understand.

Time changes everything and the way of life we knew is not anymore. Enter the digitalization of the printed word.

So libraries could eventually disappear together with so many other things that used to be. The whole way of life will be transformed and while we, the older, might scream in horror about the loss and the path to disaster of the young, they will just go on in their new system, leaving behind the past generation as obsolete due to their difficulties to adapt according to the times and technologies that come forward to replace the old ones.

Just a thought.

Raul