Museums of the Book

Having spent a long time in the rare book library business, I've been asked many times about what the future of rare books and manuscripts will be in the 21st century cyberworld of "myfaces" and "spacebooks" (another's coinage, and to be said with your best Grampa Simpson impression). The future looks like this. As books and handwritten documents become less a part of our lives, they acquire even more aura and make for even more potent museum fodder. I always think of what happened to painting after the invention of photography as an analogy....