Libraries turn a digital page

A collection of handwritten books helped create one of the world's first libraries, the great Library of Alexandria, which was accidentally burned down by Julius Caesar in 48 BC. Yet it was technology---the invention of the printing press in 1439---that led to an explosion of books (not to mention pamphlets, magazines, journals and other printed works) and of libraries. Grand libraries were built in the 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in the grandest of all, the US Library of Congress, which houses 32 million books and other printed works. Today, technology is also revolutionising reading material, and with that libraries. Books now comprise a small proportion of what we read---for Swinburne's library, books are less than 25 per cent of what readers use; the rest is almost entirely digital and online content. Professor John Tarrant, secretary-general of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, has said: “The coming of the information technology revolution … has changed the role of libraries just as radically as did the mechanical printing press.” It therefore raises the question, 'Can the library make a second radical change in its role---this time from print to digital?'