old books

      One of the things cyberspace hopes to accomplish is to scan every book ever printed. At least one copy of everything would be in a computer file somewhere, even if the file is not available to share. People are also working on projects to transcribe old written records into typescript--as computer files. There are still mountains of old court records, church records, government records, diaries and manuscripts--all written on paper in old-fashioned script. Some of these records are available to the public, but to see them you would need to visit the building in which they are housed. Photocopies are sometimes available, but that only works when a researcher knows what he or she is looking for. No one would take on the job of photocopying an entire set of records just so a researcher could look through them--and if they did, at 10 cents or 25 cents a page, the cost would be enormous. The internet can someday make all of these records available to anyone who wants to look at them--they are public records, after all.
     The internet could also make rare books available, or books long out of circulation.  Libraries do have a system of loaning books to one another when someone requests them, but the internet could make that much easier. The book has to be put in the mail, which takes time, and someone has to pay the postage costs. It has cost me as much as $10 to borrow a book. Even with an interlibrary loan system, some books are too rare and valuable to borrow. People are sometimes permitted to look at them in person--by visiting the library that owns them. A trip like this might  not be possible for everyone who might like to look at a rare book--making rare books available online would solve this problem. Many of the rare books  belong to public libraries, and the public that supports the libraries ought to be able to use them.