I am unsure of whether what I am writing makes sense because my thoughts are currently all jumbled in my head, but one thing I have noticed with our generation is that books seem to get lost in the age of the internet. With the internet there to provide answers to questions and to provide reading material, at least among many people I know, the library is no longer a place to actually borrow books, but rather one for quiet studying. Granted, I have friends who still frequent the library for its books but that does not account for the majority of the people I know. In regards to rare books and the questions, where do we find information on them and where do we find images of them, a reasonable answer could be the internet. However, I think many people fail to notice that there are also many libraries that specialize in such books. After viewing in class the different texts, I think it is most beneficial to see these books in person so that one can fully appreciate their qualities. Is the internet taking away from the unique qualities rare books posses?
Your writing makes sense, no worries! I agree that technology is changing the role of print books, especially in academia. Personally, I see the role of the internet in making more information available to more people as a positive thing. Through JStor and InterLibrary Loans, for example, we have access to more scholarly articles. As a fan of print books for the most part, I do not think that the internet is taking away from print books, especially for those who still use and appreciate them. The same goes for rare books, such as the ones we have seen in the library. Their unique, historical qualities cannot be diminished by the internet. Maybe we can see the internet as adding to their history by providing more background information so that we can appreciate them even more when we see them in person.
In response to the last part of your post I do think in a way that the internet has it’s drawbacks in relation to rare books. This may be a stretch, but a comparison to this could be watching sports or concerts on TV as opposed to being at them live. There is definitely a HUGE difference in the whole experience from one setting to the other. Of course it is not as if you are interacting with a crowd of screaming rare book fans, but seeing the books in person is a completely different experience than looking at pictures online. In person you get to interact with the books by feeling the pages and covers; you get to hold these valuable(in more sense than one) pieces of history in your hand. In viewing these books online basically all you get to see are the words. To me there is a lot lost from one experience (in person) to the other (online).
I too agree that having the availibility of books and different texts online can make a person less likely to visit the library for the use of books than for the use of other resources. I know that personally, whenever I visited the library this year it was not to use the books it contained. Instead, I often visit the library either to find a quiet place to study or to use the library computers when my own is not working. I had not taken note of this before, and now see how strange this actually is.