Looks like a feud down to the Dewey corral!

Why can't we all just get along? Just a wee bit of a dustup reported between the blogging community and the new president-elect of the American Library Association. Seems like the ALA guy feels the recently announced Google project to bring major collections of works online should not - or cannot - outshine the physical collection of classics and the cultural history maintained by libraries. Then some bloggers over-reacted - and his response makes some good points - but also misses some points.

The death of books has been proclaimed regularly - and it's not happening - so that debate is a waste. As for the relative value of a medium or a format - seems to me that choice is what it's all about. Certainly a digital representation can achieve distribution never dreamed of before it was available. But then there is real information in the physical nature of a paper-published work as well, and controversies over the digital conversion of newspapers - and the loss of certain characteristics in the process - will attest.

The key thing is for all enthusiasts to continue to refine their skills in their chosen medium - to get good at what they do - so they can be threatened when some whippersnapper invents yet another new medium in the not-too-distant future!