Not only that, but how long?

Personally, we still memorize, even though we write, so I expect that we will generate hardcopy for millennia to come.

I don't think books are dead per say, although i do think they'll go out of fashion.

Looking at the current digital revolution it makes info more widely accessible to a larger populace. The drawback is digital records can be corrupted and lost, either on purpose by dubious individuals or accidentally. The greatest threat to books is water and fire. Computers rely on so much more, electricity, memory etc.

Much like the library revolution where old archived books and documents were transferred onto microfiche or microfilm, i suspect most books will go digital. Although i can tell you now when archive departments went to the film and fiche methods they certainly didn't throw out their orginal books and documents, these remain lock away in cool storage rooms. Why?

Well modern technology has it's flaws and weaknesses and thus hard copies were kept as backups, (some are kept for their own historical importance anyhow). But i suspect fundamentally people have come to see a book as a real source of knowledge in itself, something concrete that is tangeble. Whereas what's on the internet lacks the tangible aspect, so therefore in my mind at least it seems less real, as if inferior, maybe not in importance and information wise, but inferior in presence and in reality.

I suspect books will cast a long shadow over digital records for many years to come. Just like the shadow of gold and silver continues to loom ahead of the world of fiat currencies. The value of gold is seen as more real than that of fiat money. When in actually fact you have to wonder if either of them have any real value at all. Gold is merely valuable because of tradition, afterall it wasn't valuable to the Incas or the Aztecs... chocolate was more important to them.

I suspect therefore books will continue to be important because it's tradition. Traditions die hard.

My personal belief is that print will never die. I'm pretty computer literate having started using the buggers in 1968. A long time ago. There are things that I like on computer and things that I want in print.

Novels belong in print. I don't want the pleasure of holding a computer in my lap to read one nor do I want to be confined to my desk. I read pretty much everywhere I go. Over the past six months I have spent countless hours in doctors' offices and hospital waiting rooms. I can pull out my book and read for as long as I want. No laptop to lug along. Yes I have a Palm and use it extensively but I don't like the interface for books. Screen is too small and the paging around is a pain in the butt.

Reference works on the other hand are a natural for the computer. The enhanced search capability is outstanding. I used to have the entire IBM Technical Library series online. Having a go at a security problem and not sure what areas are affected. Do a global search and you get a list of documents with exact page references. Can't be beat.

Coins -- Heck I love having the first six volumes of the Numismatist on computer. The files are easy to search or scroll and I don't need to have the bookshelf space or go to the expense of finding such "rare" publicaitons. I'm looking forward to many additions to my digital numismatic library.

Tax forms and booklets - online for me.

Woodworking plans - both ways. I always print them to carry into the workarea.

Auto repair manuals - an online natural.

I usually find reference via computer. Once I have located what I want to study and have browsed through to ensure that it contains the kernels i'm after, I THEN print it off to study in depth. Hours of getting square eyed and damaged in front of a VDU have taught me that printed matter is much more `Ian' friendly than electronic.

I don't think print will ever 'die'. But, I think it may be much less important than it is and has been.

The internet is still evolving and still changing. A lot of print is moving to the internet but there is still a lot to be worked out on how companies can make money on it, how it can be more portable, how it can be safely protected, etc.

I do see the explosion of online content by the common man continuing and growing. I think personal websites devoted to providing information on one's interests will continue to play a larger role in our reading as will forums and other still developing methods.

When you see a site like Dale's Austrian Coins

http://www.austriancoins.com

it is easy to see the kind of information that can be readily available without the need to find a publisher outside of yourself.

I also fully believe in the ability of online forums to be more than just a instant and fleeting discussion of current topics. CP is the prime example. There is a lot more than just discussion provided in this environment and all of it can be commented on, corrected, discussed, etc unlike someone putting up a static web page or publishing an article. I also think Wikis can assume a similar, albeit different, role.

Wow! That certainly came a long way!! Time to mention it again in the column. I am stunned.

In the business world it now seems that for every electronic version of a document there are multiple versions of the hardcopy distributed to dozens of people. Expendable print usage must be rising with no end in sight.

Books have that charm and portability, that'll probably take another century to challenge with the ipod nano of electronic paper.

Newspapers are probably on a forefront of going completely electronic, then magazines, then books, and lastly Visio flow charts.

There is a human factor in this that I think is going to drive things too.

My Grandfather never owned a computer. My Dad did not own a computer until he was a senior citizen. I did not own a computer until I was a young adult. My kids had a computer before they entered kindergarten.

As this next generation goes through life, a computer will likely be as familiar to them as a toaster. That should accelerate the demise of print as the top dog.

My 13 year old is making a website as one of his school assignments this year.

I am taking some classes at a community college while working there part-time. Yesterday, in the Graphic Arts department on the FREE STUFF table, I found a copy of Big Idea, a little in-house magazine for artists and writers in advertising. The cover story was "The Myth of the Paperless Society." Supporting that was a small opinion piece that credited GM president Roger Moore for saying in 1986, "By the end of the century, we will be living in a paperless society."

Yet, paper lives on.

The most dramatic change over the past 20 years is that with computers we customize print. When you sign up for an online service or a telephone, you might get a packet of print in the mail. That packet will be detailed to you in a hundred or 200 ways that you do not perceive, based on the service options you elected when you signed on.

The strongest feature that print has is that the customer decides when and where to read it. You give it to them in the supermarket and they read it at home. For us, that means, picking it up at a coin show and reading it at home.

Print communication has aggressively seized packaging as a medium that electronic venues simply cannot have. You might think that you rip the covers off and throw them away, and you do -- but you have read them first, or you would not have bought the product. In numismatics, those packages are valuable.