At Cornell’s Kroch Library, thousands of rare books and ancient artifacts reside, ready to be studied by visiting academics and Cornell’s own students. Their collection impressed me with its sheer size as well as its diversity – the library holds everything from clay tablets and manuscripts by authors like E.B. White. What struck me the most about the library, though, is its dedication to preserving these artifacts.

In today’s digital world, we find ourselves in a war between the digital and printed mediums, fed by two different kinds of people – those who embrace tablets and e-books, and those who prefer a good old-fashioned book.  I’m not here to argue either way, but my visit to Kroch Library did give an interesting perspective on this debate.

Almost all of the materials in the Cornell Library system, including Kroch, have a digital counterpart. There are e-book versions of the newer academic materials, countless editions and transcriptions of older novels, and photographs of ancient manuscripts and artifacts. For example, it’s not hard to find copies of Old English poems and stories, even if their original exists in highly fragile manuscripts guarded in prestigious collections. And yet, nobody would even think of suggesting that the originals don’t matter anymore. I can read Beowulf from the paperback copy on my bookshelf, but the real thing remains incredibly important.

Of course, the comparison between priceless manuscripts and my tattered paperback probably isn’t the same as the war on e-readers. But it does raise the question – does having a tangible object that you can feel and see somehow make it more important? You decide.