The fourth week of my internship was a short one. I was entertaining a visiting friend and little could be done until I visited the Library of Congress to undergo training for organizing the files for the American Scholar. Like the week before, I perused old issues of the Scholar. This time, however, I also went through old tear-sheets--unbound books, essentially--and got rid of any unnecessary copies. The amount of paper I went through was astounding.
Many organizations, even if they don't directly deal with books and other literary works, probably use an exorbitant amount of paper. Technophiles and environmentalists alike may use this as an argument for the digitalization of everything. I am not sure if I truly agree with this, but what I do know was how wonderful it was to sift through water-stained copies of the Scholar from 1960. I loved seeing the handwritten notes of editors-past on old tear-sheets. Even the difference in paper quality from 1990 to 2006 was amazing to me.
Maybe it does kill trees, but it keeps the heart of progress alive.
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