Introduction
The desire for paperless technologies can be traced back as far as the invention of the Morse Code or Edison’s phonograph, both of which desired to reduce the need for paper in communication (Sellen and Harper, 2002). It seems that with each technological development, paper has been under threat; ‘paper has always been a symbol of old-fashioned practices and old-fashioned technology’ (Sellen and Harper, 2002, p.5 ). In the past this threat has been mostly symbolic, in that it was fundamentally unfeasible and never truly desired: it is worth considering that the myth of the paperless library can be traced to Geroge E. Pake, an employee of Xerox, a company whose largest profits were through paper sales (Sellen and Harper, 2002).
However, the rapid technological developments of recent years and the popular use of the World Wide Web have made the prospect of a paperless office, and more interestingly, the paperless global information environment, a reality. This essay intends to consider the feasibility and desirability of a paperless library by applying the paperless model to the principles of what traditionally constitutes a library. These principles, condensed for the context of this essay, are the collection of information, the preservation of information, and access to information through organization.
Collection of Information
To simplify the whole library spectrum is difficult, but it is undeniable
that the foundation lays in the collection of information for the benefit of the library’s users. As Pomerantz
explains; 'Unlike museums, it is seldom the materials in libraries that attract people but rather the ideas
carried by the materials’ (2007, p.505). Libraries,
therefore, do not need to rely on a particular medium to provide this service.
Digital and Hybrid Libraries
The most common form of paperless libraries are those labelled by the terms ‘digital’, ‘virtual’, or ‘electronic’ libraries. These constitute ‘a managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network’ (Arms, 2000, p.2 ). Many libraries have embraced digital libraries to support their print collections creating a wealth of ‘hybrid libraries’ combining the best of both media. However, hybrid libraries have to divide their resources between both digital and print, and ‘the pressure to support traditional media alongside new digital collections is a heavy burden on budgets’ ( Arms, 2000, p.7 ). The UK currently faces steep spending cuts, with reports claiming that spending on education will fall 13% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15 (cited by Coughlan, 2011), with a total of £940m, a 12.6% cut, being taken from university funding over the next academic year (Vasagar, 2011). With this reduction in mind, and those across other recession-hit countries, I want to consider how effective the hybrid approach is, and whether the minimisation of print collections to create paperless libraries could allow for a more efficient library service.
