Unsustainable system
There are approximately about 500 000 - 1 000 000 libraries in the world.
In every one of them has a large, large amount of books - for example - in some of them there is over 30 000 000 books.
In every book there is again quite of lot a pages - from a few dozen to over a thousand sometimes.
And as we know - pages are made from paper which is in turn made among others from trees.
Every year a lot of paper is produced in the world and it takes a lot of trees - according to the Ecology Global Network there are lot of trees cut down for producing paper - every year approcimately 4 000 000 000 trees, so, on average half a tree per every person in the world.
Much of that paper is used for producing books - about 35% of world´s logging volume.
The World Counts homepage says that for printing alone sunday issue for The New York Times takes about 75 000 trees...
The world digitizes
The world is becoming more and more digital and we get used to it step-by-step and since we can expect that the digital world continues his triumph, maybe it makes sense to re-arrange some things - like public libraries?
Who could run that kind of global library? Maybe some mega-corporations such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.
What would be some financial benefits of digitizing libraries?
First of all, there will be no need for buildings - or for buying, renting buildings - costs associated with buildings will also disappear, such as rent, electricity, water, heating, cooling, maintenance, repair, etc.
In addition, huge savings would be generated through paid employees.
While digitizing old books may be costly, new ones will already be digital before printing - so - no need storage and transport costs.
What would be some benefits to the environment?
Many of these 4 000 000 000 trees could remain and the Earth's ecosystem would become more balanced.
In addition, the production of all kinds of glues and dyes that were previously used for printing books would decrease considerably also the consumption of water consumed by large volumes for producing paper (The World Counts page states that up to 10 liters of water is required for the producing of one A4 paper sheet) and, of course, pollutants from production units.
Minuses?
Usually almost every change also has some disadvantages - in that change the most difficult moment would probably be in the drastic reduction of manpower.
At the same time - this is inevitable - we digitize and robotise in a number of other areas of life and we have to simply adapt.
Also financial and environmental costs related to the management of digital systems, the construction and maintenance of server bases can not be ignored, but I believe that, as a result of a thorough analysis, the digital system would still be much more affordable.
In conclusion
Of course, everything is not always as simple and black or white as it sounds.
New solutions can be born through pain and growth patterns are inevitable, but development needs to be - that's the life.
Source: Urbandendro
http://ravelreiljan.blogspot.com/
There are approximately about 500 000 - 1 000 000 libraries in the world.
In every one of them has a large, large amount of books - for example - in some of them there is over 30 000 000 books.
In every book there is again quite of lot a pages - from a few dozen to over a thousand sometimes.
And as we know - pages are made from paper which is in turn made among others from trees.
Every year a lot of paper is produced in the world and it takes a lot of trees - according to the Ecology Global Network there are lot of trees cut down for producing paper - every year approcimately 4 000 000 000 trees, so, on average half a tree per every person in the world.
Much of that paper is used for producing books - about 35% of world´s logging volume.
The World Counts homepage says that for printing alone sunday issue for The New York Times takes about 75 000 trees...
The world digitizes
The world is becoming more and more digital and we get used to it step-by-step and since we can expect that the digital world continues his triumph, maybe it makes sense to re-arrange some things - like public libraries?
Who could run that kind of global library? Maybe some mega-corporations such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.
What would be some financial benefits of digitizing libraries?
First of all, there will be no need for buildings - or for buying, renting buildings - costs associated with buildings will also disappear, such as rent, electricity, water, heating, cooling, maintenance, repair, etc.
In addition, huge savings would be generated through paid employees.
While digitizing old books may be costly, new ones will already be digital before printing - so - no need storage and transport costs.
What would be some benefits to the environment?
Many of these 4 000 000 000 trees could remain and the Earth's ecosystem would become more balanced.
In addition, the production of all kinds of glues and dyes that were previously used for printing books would decrease considerably also the consumption of water consumed by large volumes for producing paper (The World Counts page states that up to 10 liters of water is required for the producing of one A4 paper sheet) and, of course, pollutants from production units.
Minuses?
Usually almost every change also has some disadvantages - in that change the most difficult moment would probably be in the drastic reduction of manpower.
At the same time - this is inevitable - we digitize and robotise in a number of other areas of life and we have to simply adapt.
Also financial and environmental costs related to the management of digital systems, the construction and maintenance of server bases can not be ignored, but I believe that, as a result of a thorough analysis, the digital system would still be much more affordable.
In conclusion
Of course, everything is not always as simple and black or white as it sounds.
New solutions can be born through pain and growth patterns are inevitable, but development needs to be - that's the life.
Source: Urbandendro
http://ravelreiljan.blogspot.com/
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