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The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail J. Sellen and Richard H.R. Harper. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. 231 pages. $24.95. (ISBN 0-262-19464-3)
Behind the frequent prediction of the obsolescence of libraries is the assumption that paper will be unnecessary in the future. All information, in this view, will be available and managed on the Internet or by other electronic means. The Myth of the Paperless Office explains why paper is unlikely to disappear when working with information. In doing so, it elucidates valuable information for librarians and cultural managers both for defending the paper they currently oversee and for creating paperless document systems. In this book, Abigail J. Sellen and Richard H.R. Harper do nothing less than describe how people read, take information, and create knowledge from information.
The authors specialize in psychology and business practices, and the book is a culmination of years of their research. They study what individuals do with paper that makes it so necessary to office work and, consequently, why it might never totally disappear, and what software and hardware creators need to take into account in order to tap this market of office efficiency. This book does not...