Entitlement

[gfish]

I have a ridiculous feeling of entitlement to information. I just had to go to the physical library to pick up physical copies of 1980 and 1993 articles. (Online access only goes back to 1995 for this journal.) The whole thing was a field trip to the 20th century. You can't check out periodicals, and they didn't have a scanner, so now I have a stack of minimally-useful potential paper cuts on my desk. You can only pay for the copy cards with cash, and they don't have an ATM. The whole thing made me quite angry. Which is ridiculous, of course, to expect that the full sum of human knowledge be instantly available from the comfort of my own laptop.

But still... the new way is better in every way. I can't really feel guilty for enjoying and internalizing the realities of new technology. Was someone complaining about book store selection in the century after Gutenberg ridiculous? This isn't just about personal comfort, this is about removing an barrier of access to information. That's a noble goal, one with plenty of work left to be done on it. So, grrr, I say, grrr! My rage might be a bit ridiculous, but so is having to make physical copies of data in 2009.

Comments

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

The frustration with the physical library is not new. I once attended a scientific talk (Pre-internet) where the speaker commented, "Two weeks in the lab will save you a week in the library."