 "Photo: Kelly Calligan, Senior Staff Photographer")
That long walk to the library may soon become a thing of the past.
Recently, super search engine Google has undertaken a plan that will digitize five major libraries, including the New York Public Library. This will allow anyone with access to the Internet to view millions of books online. Libraries may soon become a second option for finding information.
This trend is not new. Even before Google's plan, many libraries and museums have quietly begun scanning their collections and putting them online. Soon, study and research may be as simple as clicking a mouse.
Having an entire library's resources available online may be able to help even the most motivationally challenged of students.
"I think having a digital library would benefit all students," political science sophomore Scott Diel said. "It eliminates a lot of time and makes getting research done a lot easier."
Having digital libraries may eliminate the need to check out books in the future. In addition, there would be fewer worries about books dirtying or decaying while left on shelves for years. However, the prospect of digitizing libraries and gathering all pertinent information on the Internet leaves some with an otherwise empty feeling.
"I kind of like going to the library," finance freshman Kevin Fickle said. "It feels easier to study and there's a lot of other services there that can help."
The process of bringing San Diego State's library into students' homes via the Internet is a work in progress.
"We haven't done a lot, but we've discussed it as far as strategic planning," Jon Cawthorne, associate dean in the library and information access center, said.
He said the process of digitizing SDSU's library or any library is not terribly complicated or time consuming.
"It wouldn't take that much time to get done, perhaps six months to a year," Cawthorne said. "Information would have to be scanned and we would probably begin with our special collections and attempt to link them with other libraries' special collections."
One aspect of library digitization that serves to protect against making libraries obsolete in the face of this technology is that the full texts of books are not available - only parts of books would be available through the online, digitized library.
In addition, the process of digitizing libraries takes money.
Cawthorne said while it would probably be relatively expensive, there are many grants being offered to libraries. He said because so many libraries are interested in digitizing and because the advantages are so great, the grant money is readily available for interested libraries.
The idea of having the full resources of a library available online could lead some to think they never need to visit a library again.
"Digitizing is a great idea and Google is an excellent source," Cawthorne said.
"While libraries feel very strongly about people having access to information, we just think there is more information (in the library) that people may not be aware of than what is available on Google."
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