[azalemeth]

One of my defining memories looking around universities as a 16/17-year-old was going to their libraries and being overwhelmed with how much knowledge there was there. Shelves that showed the parallax in the rooms, where books went off into the distance and motion-activated lights. As an undergraduate, I worked extensively in an underground library -- isolated from the world, isolated from anything but my tasks at hand, and with all the knowledge one could conceivably want if you could find it effectively (or, at least, that's how it felt).

Libgen.rs may have an unimaginably larger number of titles on offer, but it's not quite the same as walking into a cathedral-size store of books and looking at the weight of humanity's greatest achievements staring back at you. Libraries are awesome. We should support them, and keep supporting them, as much as possible.

[tacLog]

I couldn't agree more. I have 0 desire to replace or limit libraries. They are some of few places where you can feel the progress of humanity in a physical space.

I just want to allow people who can't access libraries easily to experience some of that.

[jll29]

I don't think that is possible (to re-create that feeling of awe) on a single screen computer. Perhaps some VR room, but then again most people do not have such special hardware.

What I can see might be useful is a traditional Web space that creates a lesser but similar "flavor" of the awe by showing plenty of book titles while letting you navigate in different directions like you would wonder along the shelves in a physical library. At least such a low tech Web version can be consumed from less than wealthy countries.

[chrisco255]

Everyone says they're awesome while at the same time pointing out that the digital services are far superior in terms of scalability, quantity, searchability, etc.

It seems the one things libraries have going for them versus digital services is the emotional effect that these physical places have on us. That doesn't bode well for libraries long term.

[ht_th]

Discoverability in libraries is better, and difficult to replicate in an online setting I've found. When I found a book through the online database, I would go to get it and almost always the other books on the shelf or nearby shelves were also relevant to my research. But most of these books didn't show up in the results of my initial queries, so I would not have found them without the physical library.

Unfortunately, the libraries I went to, have drastically shrunk their accessible physical collections in favor of keeping most books in storage.

[GuestHNUser]

Big thing libraries also have is books that haven't been digitized. There are so many great works that simply cannot be found online.

[wanderer_]

Now people at that age are used to having all of that information at their fingertips and for free.

They say that this ease of information is causing physical changes in how our brains operate.