Fool's Gold: Why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library » (New Edition)

Mark Y. Herring is the dean of library services, Dacus Library, Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. His work has appeared in American Libraries and Library Journal and many other publications.

This work skeptically explores the notion that the internet will soon obviate any need for traditional print-based academic libraries. It makes a case for the library's staying power in the face of technological advancements (television, microfilm, and CD-ROM's were all once predicted as the contemporary library's heir-apparent), and devotes individual chapters to the pitfalls and prevarications of popular search engines, e-books, and the mass digitization of traditional print material.