PARADIGM SHIFT

If digital libraries are to become truly useful, they must assist users in making the transition from paper books to digital hypermedia. Many people report that they derive a high degree of comfort from books for the following reasons:

• Portability. Books can readily be carried, are compact, light in weight and comfortable to read. Anything you can't read in bed will never displace a book.
• Reliability. Reading books would still be possible even if every computer on earth were down.
• Familiarity with the medium. The pages of a book are easy to turn, the book can be opened to any page, and the linear hierarchical organization of the material is easy to grasp.
• Low cost.
• Ability to annotate. Comments and corrections can be written in a book; passages can be marked for emphasis or studying, and a book can be resold to recover costs.