[Publib] Throw the Book...

[Phalbe Henriksen]

At 06:19 PM 9/3/2007, Miriam Bobkoff wrote:

a) historically speaking the idea that 3/4s of the population is 
reading books is astonishing. That's darn near universal literacy 
from my point of view. It's thrilling news, not scary news.

Back shortly after the earth cooled, I learned in library science 
school (not LIS, note), that the quote "one-third of people read and 
get their reading material from the library, one-third of people read 
and get their reading material from elsewhere, and one-third of 
people don't read," was still true. (I don't know how old it is.)

This is the first infomation (note, not "information") I've seen that 
changes that. Has the US slipped from 1/3 to 1/4?

"Don't read" needs defining, for one thing. "Don't read an entire 
book"?? What about reading other things besides books, including the 
internet? Is that a book of fiction or nonfiction? Is one expected to 
read one or the other? How much reading in newspapers, magazines, the 
internet, etc, counts to equal the value of "one book"???

[Miriam said] ...She doesn't approve of my book habit. I don't, to 
tell you the truth, approve of her intellectual life.

So, how does your opinion, if it's held by the people who came up 
with this "infomation," sway the results???

Etc, etc, ad nauseam....

Phalbe Henriksen

Remember that "data is not information/information is not 
knowledge/knowledge is not wisdom."