Sender: Rare Books and Special Collections Forum <EXLIBRIS@RUTVM1.BITNET>
Some further remarks on the Malkin lecture. Yes, Sandy, I recall the
same statistic about horses that you mention, and would only add that in
certain environments horses do real work, e.g. cattle ranches and
mounted police patrols, which are often a good deal more than
ceremonial. One of the most important themes running through the work
of the historian and former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin is
that of technological change. His point is that virtually no technology
is an exact replacement in terms of function for those that came before.
Witness the horse. Whether this will apply to books remains to be seen,
but certainly it makes prediction more difficult and a great deal more
uncertain. Another problem is that the most important influences and
events seem to be wholly unpredictable, as world political developments
of the past 2 or so years clearly demonstrate. So I suggest we stick
around for a while and see what happens!
=======================================
Philip A. Metzger
Linderman Library 30
Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA 18018-3067
Special Collections: (215) 758-4506
Lehigh University Press: (215) 758-3933
fax (both): (215) 758-5605
bitnet: pam5@lehigh
internet: pam5@ns.cc.lehigh.edu