The more libraries spread out, the more central they become

Studying the place of libraries in the world of knowledge, the author puts forward five arguments on the "library machine", "a sphere whose centre is everywhere and its circumference nowhere". He argues that libraries are increasingly material and less and less virtual, although books are rapidly losing their central place within them. Libraries are more important than ever; librarians and training staff must learn and pass on new forms of knowledge that are very different from the "world as it used to be".
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