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Archiver > APG > 2007-07 > 1183752290


From: "Jack Butler" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Why do genealogists disenfranchise themselves?
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:04:50 -0400
In-Reply-To: <468E3064.DB66.00AF.0@spl.org>


I absolutely love libraries. I love wandering the stacks, I love digging
through old books, I love finding that unexpected treasure on the shelf
below the book that I was looking for; I pretty much love everything about
them. That is probably one of the many reasons that I enjoy genealogy so
much. But the flat reality is that I will never get to visit most of the
great libraries - or if I do get there, it will be only for the odd rare
visit. I fully understand the kind of experience that I am losing when I
access a wonderful old volume digitally instead of in its native
environment.

That said, I hope that you will forgive me for not joining any laments over
the growing digitization of print and original record collections. Because
it is through digitization that I might gain knowledge of and access to
things that might never have known existed or that I probably never would
have seen even if I knew about them.

Yes, a rich experience is missed by not being in the library - but I cannot
call it a lost experience, since it probably never would have occurred. And
the gain of having the otherwise unavailable record available to me has a
great deal of value to me. Two nights ago, I sat in my little home office in
Florida and studied digitized images of 17th century parish records from a
parish in Midlothian, Scotland. Yes, studying them in the Archives of
Scotland or in the original Parish church would have been a richer
experience; it will be better if I ever get there. In the meantime, it was
marvelous to see them the way that I did.

So, I do truly love libraries and archives and I do visit them whenever I
can. But I must also say unequivocally that I absolutely love the internet
and its digitized images. I am sorry if access comes at the cost of more
traditional forms or structures. But I still love the access.

Jack Butler



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