Timothy wouldn't be able to lug my library to the next room let alone across the country. He could, however, lug my laptop.
It occurs to me as I get more and more into the digital world, that having one of my main resources in paper form that weighs of pounds (kilos as well), is a little too first century and is pretty impractical. "Print is dead", prophesied notable researcher, Dr. Egon Sprengler. (Okay, I know it was in Ghostbusters 1 but that's okay, isn't it?) It then occurred to me that it sure would be handy to have access to my most needed books via my ever present laptop and even my mobile phone. I carry thousands of songs, tons of videos, photos. Why not my library.
After doing a little research (euphemism for running a google search and looking at 3 pages) it appears to still be in the "too hard" basket. I am not so easily discouraged so I have come up with some ideas to transform my library from its intimidating size to small percentage of my hard drive. My ideas .....
- Decide to not buy another paper books for my professional library
- Determine which books I want ready digital access to. Others that I might want irregularly can be left on the wall to impress visitors or stored in Julie's sewing room. I'm sure she wouldn't mind.
- Check Google Books to see if PDF versions are available either free or for sale.
- Kindle - so many books are being published in Kindle versions but this necessitates the purchase of a Kindle and the use of said Kindle when wanting to read these books. Is there software around to read Kindle files on my Macbook? Can I read Google books on the Kindle?
- I will not spend endless hours scanning the books. If I had that much time free I would be playing golf.
Any suggestions or answers out there.
http://georgelittlejourney.blogspot.com/
