"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in
. 4.170:

Ivan Vegvary fired this volley in
:

Yes, I have not looked at these books for five years except the math
books. Don't really NEED any of them, but they were my life. When I
pass they will simply be thrown away. Maybe I should do it now.

Any experience with this down-sizing would be appreciated.

Ivan, you face the same quandry facing all professionals for whom the
technology has progressed past their prior art.

I am (albeit slowly) also discarding all the trappings of my prior
engineering past, because they ARE now available on the Web. And if
that collapses, and we're left in a "prior time", I'll still be more
knowledgeable than 90% of the new students coming into the
disciplines.

To be sure, the old books will still exist in paper libraries. It's
not essential that we keep _everything_ we once relied up. I told my
wife once, that if "the 'cataclysm' happens, my first stop will be to
rob the local college library (which has an engineering school) --
even if it must be at gunpoint -- and I'm taking a BIG trailer!!!!"

You might be able to find stuff on DVD if you don't want to depend
solely on the Internet.

None of us lowly civilians can know for sure that the Internet is going
to be here tomorrow.