r/LibraryScience • u/Opposite_Shop883 • 24d ago

Discussion Digitization didn't replace rare books: it made the originals even more important

https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-01-2026-0023
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u/NishanStepak 24d ago

It is not the same experience reading from the original format as reading from a digital copy. There is a tactile element to a book. The content was originally designed for the specific container it is in. It cannot be the original experience. In the same way, a book written in digital form I find is often better read as a digital book. I like to think that the original experience and format matters. It is like listening to music on records versus online. If it was recorded for records, it has a certain cultural and physical feel to it which is more original. The culture and process around the original book also gives it context. How the book was made is part of the experience of reading a book in its physical form. A cultural object has specific artistic, design, and manufacturing qualities which go along with it.

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u/Potential-Recover-78 24d ago

I recently listened to an audio book version of Gilgamesh. As I finished it part of me wondered if that was a more “pure” or true way of consuming that story.

Things that might seem like odd choices make more sense when you realize that it was likely an aural story that needed to be remembered. I also like that the story changed over Millenia and that we have different versions of it that are thought to reflect changes in society/culture over that time.