The Librarian of Babel: for a Public Reading Right

Mike Holderness, Freelance Journalist ( Homepage)

Ariadne 1997
(ReLIS:doi:doiari:y:1997:i:11:p:15)

Abstract:

Welcome once more to the Library of Babel. At today's lunch we will be discussing some of the economic issues raised by our uniquely comprehensive acquisitions programme, and a possible solution. First, the problem. This Library's goal, as those who have visited previously will know, is to acquire or otherwise collect and (eventually) to catalogue all expressions of human knowledge. We have previously discussed questions raised by the huge outpouring of grey and darker material through the new electronic media, and will have to return to these. Today we will concentrate on the problem of commercially published material in the new media - notably the World Wide Web and its successors.

Keywords: From each article, you can move back and forth between articles written for the same column in other issues of Ariadne.
Note: The Librarian, talking to Mike Holderness, considers the economics of gathering all human knowledge and proposes a Public Reading Right. This article appears in the Web, and not the print, version of Ariadne.
Month: September 1997
Year: 1997

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