The World is NOT 6000 yrs old. It's actually 18 yrs old....

[Junkdrawer]

Well, it is if all you have is the Internet and Google and you're trying to get a handle on history - especially history as presented in news stories in the popular media.

I used to practically LIVE in libraries. Those huge green volumes called 'The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature' were my best friends. Now that we have Google, I've become lazy - haven't been to a physical library in years.

This thread reminded me of that:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2864276

When I did use libraries, one of my favorite things to do was to read how the popular media covered The Bomb between 1945 and say, 1950. The hubris, the suggestions that we use the bomb to move mountains and reroute rivers, the sense that God gave US the bomb, so obviously God wanted US to rule the World. And the absolute HORROR when the USSR exploded its first bomb. Thus the setup for McCarthyism.

All out there for you to read --- in your public library. On the Internet? Not so much.

[DCKit]

1. I can't read anything longer than a DU OP on the computer screen.

Maybe I need a Kindle and to download some stuff from the Library of Congress (a place that few current Congressmen have ever set foot in).

[Junkdrawer]

2. When my wife got her PhD (~1993), see used the microfiche stacks in the Library of Congress....

to read popular literature from the late 19th century.

I'm a computer guy, she's a Theater Historian, but we do think very much alike like that.

Are you saying the LoC now has microfiche stacks online???

[DCKit]

3. They've been scanning like crazy for the past decade, at least.

There's also 'The Guttenberg Project'... more free stuff than anyone could read in a single lifetime.

I don't recall where I found it, but there's also a group that has free audio books (anything no longer copyrighted).

There's a lot out there, you just have to look for it.

[Junkdrawer]

4. AudiobooksForFree.com ???

My mp3 player is FULL of their stuff.

There's also librivox.org, but I find it hard to listen to a book if there's a different reader for each chapter.

But I will check the LoC and see where they're at. Wonder how well they index the scanned literature.

I'm SO Google spoiled.

[DCKit]

6. It's Librivox that I'm thinking of.

I had an app on my Linux PC that allowed me to rename the chapters and play them consecutively.

With the newer versions of Ubuntu, my PC has become an Internet and email terminal.

[rgbecker]

5. So my son, who got his masters of library science, loves books....

and that's why he chose to be a librarian. Had little luck in finding a job at a local library so he took a job with Ebsco Publishing. Ebsco is the new "Reader's guide to Periodical Literature", that is, a data base of indexing and short reviews of all the magazines in the world now on line, available to libraries everywhere on subscription. They recently merged with Wilson publishing which was their only competition and are growing rapidly. Although different than expected, he enjoys his work, organizing all the current information and helping to make it findable for anyone looking. Each magazine article is quickly read and than indexed by hundreds of readers, scanned and then the magazines, he tells me, are stored in the basement for a year or so in case they need to be referenced for some reason. Fortunately, most magazine publishers make a digitalized version available to them so they don't have to handle all of them in paper.

Thought you might find this interesting behind the scenes look into just who is keeping track of it all.

[Junkdrawer]

8. How far back? Do they cover the cited period ('45 to '50)?

And can I get online access, through my public library's website if necessary?

[rgbecker]

11. I think you'll have to refer to the big green books, as before the internet's birth 18 years ago!

But when in doubt....as always, ask a librarian.

[Junkdrawer]

12. always ask a librarian...

SO true. I'd ask the most odd questions and they always seemed to know EXACTLY what I wanted and where it was.

[RainDog]

14. Yes.

digitization of archives and all other library materials has been the focus for years.

even so, there are a lot of libraries (special collections, often) that don't even have their catalogs all online yet because of the cost of and the various restrictions on donor funds.

All the library stuff behind a paywall, only accessible with a subscription used to be called "the hidden internet," and that's what needs to be made totally accessible to the public as a library service now, too, those academic journals, without having to go through the library computers for things behind subscription walls.

Aaron Schwartz helped to bring this issue to the public.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. It's somewhere between 40 and 50 years old.

And when I die, it will wink out of existence.



Sorry.

[Junkdrawer]

9. In your dreams....

Back at cha....

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Sorry. I know it's tough to deal with

but you're just a minor character in the vastly exciting movie that is my being.

[sanatanadharma]

13. Our universes fade away with the last expiration...

...and for every universe that winks away,
another comes into play as a young "I AM", fascinated again by toes
eventually has a chance the truth to know
excellently in limerick expressed

"There was a young man who said "God,
I find it exceedingly odd
that this tree continues to be
when no-ones about in the quad"

"Young man, I find your astonishment odd,
I'm always about in the quad.
That's why this tree continues to be
existent by me, yours truly God". (shared by Alan Watts)

There is one self-evident truth that can not be reasoned away nor scientifically negated
Never subrated, reduced or resolved in any other
One self-revealed constant in all observation and measure
The conscious aware witness.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Yes, we can't do anything BUT exist.

dig.

[sigmasix]

16. archive has lots of free stuff

archive dot org has millions of downloads available, from music to books, old radio programs and Old PSAs from the war years and all kinds of other stuff. It's hosted by the smithsonian and ever expanding. Sometimes I spend entire weeks there downloading live music, old time radio and open source movies and software.

[Junkdrawer]

17. BTW: My boy calls me a Tull nerd....

But, given what I said I read about The Bomb in the popular mind at the time, you may see why this line from Thick as a Brick knocks my socks off every time I hear it:

"And all the promises they made are ground beneath the sadist's fall"