The potential offered to young students by libraries of printed books is the ability to select a bookshelf at random, to open any book found thereon to any page, and to be astounded by the life-changing discovery of a totally new branch of knowledge, a new teacher, or a new world.

Neither web nor hyperlinks can offer such an experience.

With such potential being lost with the electrification of libraries, its obvious that technology is no unalloyed blessing.