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Will books soon be a thing of the past?
A guidebook for everyone who would like to feel completely informed about the advantages and disadvantages of electronic media. What does it mean to be ‘well-informed’ in the age of information overload? A person goes to a library. He finds the house he knows better than any other, opens the door, takes off his shoes, boots up the computer, feeds the cat, and by then the largest library in the world, the universal library, is open. And it is everywhere, even here in his home. Libraries made of glass and stone have become superfluous. The new, modern library is made of electric current. Are bookstores to disappear as well, where bookworms can peruse at length, and which display the newest publications in colorful splendor? Will this all become a thing of the past just because any book is just a mouseclick away on computer screens? No, this is not the shape of our future, according to Dieter E. Zimmer. In his new book, he explains why print media will stay, why it must stay a part of our lives. And yet, the information age has already begun, and its medium is the computer. Whoever uses a computer to read and write should understand what it can do, but also, what it can’t do, and why. The machine of information distribution and acquisition must be controlled by informed users. The Library of the Future is a practical book which takes a look behind the scenes of the brave new media world, provides concrete information regarding its opportunities and dangers, and even supplies ‘tips and tricks’, all from an objective distance that falls prey neither to euphoria nor visions of destruction.
About the author:
Dieter E. Zimmer studied German and English, has lived in Hamburg since 1959, and was an editor for Die Zeit until 1999. He is the editor and translator of literary works, and the author of such well-known works as Tiefenschwindel, Redens Arten, So kommt der Mensch zur Sprache, Experimente des Lebens and Deutsch und anders.
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