The French national library's new Tolbiac tower complex may be both the last and the first of its kind. Last because most major cities can no longer afford to construct such ambitious public works. All over the world, libraries have begun the Herculean task of making faithful digital copies of the books, images and recordings that preserve the intellectual effort of humankind. For armchair scholars, the work promises to bring such a wealth of information to the desktop that the present Internet may seem amateurish in retrospect. But many technical, economic and legal obstacles still make that promise an uncertain one.
Librarians see three clear benefits to going digital.
First, it helps them preserve rare and fragile objects without denying access to those who wish to study them. The British Library , for example, holds the only medieval manuscript of Beowulf in London. Tokyo's National Diet Library is similarly creating highly detailed digital photographs of 1,236 woodblock prints, scrolls and other materials it considers national treasures so that researchers can scrutinize them without handling the originals. A second benefit is convenience. Once books are converted to digital form, patrons can retrieve them in seconds rather than minutes.