Okay, Books Are Deader than Before!

So I wasn't back in flash, but I've got over a year of living with the "books are dead" paradigm and yes, books are deader than before!

With Reality TV and other shows on TV, many times truth is stranger and more intriguing than fiction. Couple that with blogs "snarking" on these shows, and you can spend endless hours entertained by TV and blogs and not books.

Some of the best TV shows are recapped and commented on at the televisionwithoutpity.com website. TelevisionWithoutPity covers 24, American Idol, America's Next Top Model (ANTM), Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Heroes, House, and Ugly Betty, to name just a few shows. Each show has an accompanying forum where fans get to comment on the episodes, the actors, post spoilers, fan fic, etc. These shows can have multiple folks blogging about them. For example, Top Design, a Bravo show, not only was covered by televisionwithoutpity, but also Project Top Design, Top Design Blogger, ::Surroundings::, and other blogs. Bravo's follow-up show, Shear Genius, is recapped by the GayBoys of Project Gay and by the Bravissimo blog. Bravo's popular Project Runway show is recapped by Project Rungay and Blogging Project Runway. ANTM is recapped by televisionwithoutpity's Potes and hilariously by Rich of fourfour.com. Here are some links:

http://televisionwithoutpity.blogspot.com
http://projecttopdesign.blogspot.com
http://projectgay.blogspot.com
http://projectrungay.blogspot.com
http://bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com
http://fourfour.typepad.com

Following these blogs is like reading a never ending story or watching movies 24/7. They are rich with drama, comedy, romance, "snark". And there is a wealth of writing talent on display by the main bloggers and the commenters. When does one have time to read a book when there are so many interesting blogs to check out and post to?! You can read blogs and respond to them via the Comments sections. You read a book and usually have no one to discuss the book with unless you're in a book club. And blog posts come in small, easy-to-read chunks. Books take long to read.

Yep, books are deader than before!

Books Are Dead, Long Live Books?

The idea of discussing collecting foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) materials with a "books are dead" paradigm came from a non-FCIL librarian colleague who has worked in a law firm library setting where the paradigm is in play. Law firm libraries have been reducing their print collections and focusing more on electronic resources. Academic law libraries are experiencing space crunches, sometimes as a result of library space being repurposed for other law school uses. One of the reasons driving this "library space recovery" move is the philosophy that "books are dead" - no one uses print resources any more as everything they need is available in electronic format. And if something they need is not in electronic format, it might as well not exist as law researchers won't use them anyway. Hence, "books are dead" or might as well be dead. Therefore, law libraries do not need to provide space for books.

So, what does the "books are dead" paradigm mean for the present and future of foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) collection development? How do we go about building non-book FCIL collections that meet the research needs of users today?

In this blog discussion, I'll talk generally about the implications of a "books are dead" paradigm are generally to law libraries.

Back in a flash!
Lyo.