tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post8721066166079188594..comments2024-03-28T19:56:32.848-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `A Longing in All Things for the Past'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-8428985794925236832012-04-14T14:42:35.402-05:002012-04-14T14:42:35.402-05:00My son’s recent Cub Scout assignment required us t...My son’s recent Cub Scout assignment required us to find a newspaper from the day he was born. (I set one aside at the time, but who knows what box it’s saved in?) We went to the local library and learned they don’t keep old newspapers anymore. No microfiche either? I asked. No. You can look up newspaper content by date or keyword on the computer system instead.<br /><br />I told the librarian (a woman maybe sixty years old) that I used to work at a university library and missed the old card catalogs and stacks of smelly old newsprint. If I could flip a switch, I said, I’d gladly roll us back to the technology standards of about 1989. I guess I expected her to agree with me, but she gave a look of revulsion instead. “You know,” she said, “it’s a lot easier for me to help people in a really helpful way today.”Ian Wolcotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13824138231723753507noreply@blogger.com