Comments on: Queens (NY) Librarian Reads to Alligator to Reward Summer Reading http://www.slj.com/2013/09/public-libraries/queens-ny-librarian-reads-to-alligator-to-promote-summer-reading/ The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens Wed, 18 Sep 2013 21:37:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Chris Gifford http://www.slj.com/2013/09/public-libraries/queens-ny-librarian-reads-to-alligator-to-promote-summer-reading/#comment-103703 Chris Gifford Tue, 17 Sep 2013 22:35:43 +0000 http://www.slj.com/?p=60612#comment-103703 I declare, the things we do to get kids to read! I declare, the things we do to get kids to read!

]]> By: klishnor http://www.slj.com/2013/09/public-libraries/queens-ny-librarian-reads-to-alligator-to-promote-summer-reading/#comment-103590 klishnor Tue, 17 Sep 2013 14:14:39 +0000 http://www.slj.com/?p=60612#comment-103590 I'm trying to come up with some snappy remark, but in the meantime may I applaud Susan for her dedication and imagination. Getting children to read books is still incredibly important. Some say that books are obsolete but I wonder how many of our current information storage methods will be useable in 200 years,. Now try 2,000 years into the future. As evidence, try the following. In 1984 to 86 Britain did "Domesday 2", a collection of data, sounds, images and videos for the UK which was stored on the newest"Laserdisc" technology as it "should be useable for a long time". In the 2000's they had to copy the data onto several new storage media as there were only a few Laserdisc readers still working, and the computers that the system ran on were museum pieces. Here's a link to to the Wikipedia article about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project Books on the other hand remain functional for centuries, and if you can understand the changes in language, for millennia. I can pick up a book printed in 1800 and if it's in a language I know, read it without difficulty. I’m trying to come up with some snappy remark, but in the meantime may I applaud Susan for her dedication and imagination. Getting children to read books is still incredibly important.

Some say that books are obsolete but I wonder how many of our current information storage methods will be useable in 200 years,. Now try 2,000 years into the future. As evidence, try the following. In 1984 to 86 Britain did “Domesday 2″, a collection of data, sounds, images and videos for the UK which was stored on the newest”Laserdisc” technology as it “should be useable for a long time”. In the 2000′s they had to copy the data onto several new storage media as there were only a few Laserdisc readers still working, and the computers that the system ran on were museum pieces. Here’s a link to to the Wikipedia article about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project

Books on the other hand remain functional for centuries, and if you can understand the changes in language, for millennia. I can pick up a book printed in 1800 and if it’s in a language I know, read it without difficulty.

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