Is a paperless global environment a feasible possibility?
To determine whether or not a paperless global information environment is feasible there are, to my mind, three questions that need to be asked: Does the technology exist? Does it have a global reach? And if not, what are the technical and social factors limiting the reach of the technology? The quote we began with mentioned a paperless office, as well as the more all- encompassing global information environment. Devices, computer programmes and web applications currently exist that allows us to perform just about every office task that we use paper for. This includes:
- Office type programmes to create documents
- Web applications such as Google Docs, Evernote and Dropbox to share work and collaborate with colleagues
- Tools such as TeuxDeux (a list-making tool) and Google Calendar for personal organisation
- Plasma screens and digital photo frames to display images and posters
Outside of the office, we already have e-books, e-journals, electronic databases, and of course the vast expanses of the World Wide Web.
So the technology does exist in varying stages of elegance and efficiency. But how many people are using it? There are several reasons why people may be unable or unwilling to use this technology, they may not own the hardware required to access the internet, or they may not have the training to use it effectively.
As of 31st March 2011, 30% of the world’s population are connected to the Internet (Internet World Stats, 2011 – accessed 29/10/11). While this has risen dramatically in the last few years (in the last 5 years alone the figure has risen by 10%), we are still a very long way away from anything like full global access. Even in the UK, 23% of households in this country do not have access to the Internet (Williams, 2011 – accessed 29/10/11). Libraries can provide the access points and training in safe and savvy use of the internet and electronic resources. Shurman has set out the “desiderata” for universal internet access at libraries, which I have reproduced here:
- Most citizens live close enough to a public library facility that they can travel to it and return in the same day without undue hardship in distance travelled or expenses incurred.
- Each library outlet provides a sufficient number of interactive Internet terminals such that all who desire access to the Internet or the Web can get it promptly, or with minimal waiting time.
- Adequate workspace, consistent with the demands of Internet research, is provided at each Internet workstation.
- Access to Internet terminals is as barrier-free as possible, in both the physical and emotional senses.
- The library's hours of operation are expanded to accommodate persons whose work schedules, physical limitations, or lifestyles do not permit between-nine-and-five visits to the building.
- Censorship issues such as those involving Internet filters and other restrictions of the availability of files have been resolved in such a way that the citizenry is satisfied that young people are "protected" against harmful encounters while searching, yet empowered to search freely for information of their choosing.
- Secure transaction protocols that ensure that each individual user's private business is kept private, and free from intrusion and prying eyes.
As a minimum standard for global access to our hypothetical paperless information environment, I think that libraries would need to meet the above criteria in their internet provision. The People’s Network initiative has helped libraries in the UK to set up this kind of internet access network, but the ongoing costs of maintaining and upgrading the network will have to be met by libraries in the future. Even when a fast, reliable internet connection is available, many people simply prefer paper formats, for a variety of reasons. Partly this is for technical reasons, which I will come to shortly. Other reasons include people preferring the feel of a paper book in hand, and the feeling of possession they get looking at a shelf of books they own. The issue of possession is not one to be taken lightly, as in most cases when purchasing an electronic text, you are actually buying a license to read the text rather than the text itself. For people to fully embrace the paperless information environment, mind-sets and habits will need to change, and this will maybe take one or two generations to happen.
Social considerations aside, one of the reasons these formats have not taken off is that reading on a computer is currently clunky and unwieldy. A flickering backlit computer screen is not an ideal way to read a long piece of text, and you are tied to the computer desk. While portable tablet computers and e-readers are increasing in popularity (Purcell, 2011 – accessed 26/10/11), and several brands including the Kindle and Kobo now boast natural e-ink screens, they are not yet cheap enough to be available to everyone.1 However the price of these devices is coming down as the technology becomes more widespread, so it may eventually become an affordable option. Sellen and Harper conjecture that we may see e-reader designers branching out into “a range of different reading devices aimed at different kinds of professional audiences”, including devices for form-filling, collaborative reading and cross-referencing (Sellen and Harper, 2002)
The final thing to consider is what kind of archives we would need to keep if we were to go entirely paperless. As Herring says:
The incentive to keep really old things on the Web is simply not present in its makeup. The historical record of our culture is being more and more truncated as each year passes. (Herring, 2007)
A legal deposit system may work as well for e-books and e-journals as it does for hard copies, but what about websites and social media, which may change from day to day? The Library of Congress made headlines last year when they acquisitioned the archives of the social network Twitter (Raymond and Garrett, 2010 – accessed 29/10/11). It will be interesting to see what follows from this.
1 At the moment, the most popular (and one of the cheapest) e-ink readers on the market is the Amazon Kindle, which costs £89 for the bottom-of-the-range version. (Amazon, 2011 – accessed 29/10/11)
Introduction | Desirability | Feasibility | Conclusion | Bibliography