The future of... well everything really

In a week where my favourite news story related to something that happened over 13 billion years ago, this seemed like the perfect time to also think about the future too. I haven't blogged about technology for a while (believe it or not, some people only subscribe for the occasional tech stuff I discuss) so this seemed like an opportunity to combine the two things.

But firstly, something about history. One of the things that librarians help to do is archive the past. We do this by maintaining manuscripts and collections, providing the public with access to all sorts of materials that can be of hugely important historical significance.

If you ever wonder if these things really matter can I recommend a film I saw last year. It details how the head librarian, along with others at the national library of Sarajevo, risked their lives again and again to save history books from being destroyed during the civil war in 1992. Their bravery quite frankly is hard to comprehend. YouTube, as so often, has provided me with the opportunity to say watch the film by clicking here. I hope you'll be astounded.


Now the technology bit. I read a great piece by John Naughton recently about how nothing lasts forever. He writes about technology for the Guardian. This is what got me thinking about the Sarajevo film and how we 'protect' the past. Facebook, as it is recognisable now, won't be around in 20 years. I'm so confident of that prediction I'm prepared to write it down. Time will naturally reveal all. I also think Google will one day be confined to history books. And that's where things get interesting. Because where will those history books be stored? They won't be on Google Books because it won't be there any more. The John Naughton article reports a meeting with representatives of Google and a librarian who was involved in the Google Books project. The librarian asked them 'what happens to all these digitised books when you're gone?' They were apparently stunned by the mere idea that Google would one day not exist.

That's the thing with librarians. We tend to ask awkward questions and expect other people to know the answers. So that's what I'm going to do now. When you buy an mp3, an e-book for your Kindle or a downloaded game for your xbox, are you thinking about how you'll access it 10 or 20 years from now when the hardware has long moved on?

The John Naughton piece is here.

If you'd like to have a chat about any of these things you know how to find me.