The advent of the Internet has overwhelmed millions of individuals ? so much that the relevance of books and libraries are being questioned in this Information Age. In the context of the forthcoming celebration of the World Book and Copyright Day as proclaimed by Unesco in 1995, let us contribute to that debate.

The library of the future will be dominated by multimedia products, i.e a great combination embracing a compact-disc, the paper journal, the printed book and online electronic information products. Multimedia is about addition, not subtraction ? something which, according to John Peters, an information consultant: ?sits really well alongside what we have, and when we put the media together, they work better than anyone of them does on its own. This is what philosophers call GESTALT, i.e the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The new technology makes the whole paper technology work better, and the day we get rid of the paper journals, newspapers and books, will be a day when we lose, not gain ?. (Peters, 1996)

Umberto Eco, a famous contemporary Italian novelist, semiotician, philosopher, historian, literary and media critic and a key intellectual figure in Europe once stated:

? Books will remain indispensable not only for literature, but for any circumstances in which one needs to read carefully, to receive information and also to speculate about and reflect on it. To read a computer screen is not the same as reading a book. After spending twelve hours at a computer console, my eyes are like two tennis balls, and I feel the need to sit comfortable down in an armchair and read a newspaper, and may be a good poem. I think computers are diffusing a new form of literacy, yet they are incapable of satisfying all the intellectual needs they stimulate.

The invention of photography has made exceptional the traditional art of portraiture. But such a change in the social functions of painting has not made painting obsolete: it has given the painter more freedom for new inventions. This means that in the history of culture, it has never happened that something has simply killed something else. Something has only profoundly changed something else.? (Eco, 1995)

To say that the Internet will replace books can only be a farce. Jean Lindsay Dhookit, a computer science lecturer and an emerging author rightly said:

?Just as a hamburger and a coke is no substitute for a well balanced meal, the Internet is no substitute for books. Before a book goes into print, a text is reviewed by several individuals well versed in grammar and language. The text may have to be amended several times before it is considered worthy of publication. But does information that gets published on the Net undergo the same process?? This is rarely so. He further added: A book is something which you can ?take anywhere, you can sprawl on the sofa, lie on the carpet or recline in your bath, you can even snuggle up with one in bed, and in more than one posture too! ? (Dhookit, 1997).

?The book is the seminal history of modern civilization. What arrived on the cultural landscape of the 15th century has remained unchallenged certainly by anything that electronics can offer. To move a mountain, you must write a book, to found a religion or launch a political party, you must write a book. Attack an enemy, support a friend, tell a story, justify a career, you must write a book. Even if you wish to sneer at books, you must write a book.? (The Times, cited in Dhookit, 1997)

Books remain ?the best interface for text yet invented. Some of their comparative advantages include: their lightweight, portability, high contrast and relative cheapness. In short, they are far more efficient than the scrolls and oral lore they replaced?. (Larrea-Ona)

The vehicle ?par excellence?

Nevertheless, books cannot be quickly updated: it is believed that by the time a new book is released, its information content is already three years old. Books are a secondary source of information which contain information repackaged from the primary literature which represent ?worked over? knowledge rather than new knowledge (Grogan, 1976). A book cannot be searched by keyword, except by means of name and subject indexes. The Encyclopedia of Britannica, for instance, is no longer published on paper but on CD-ROMs and over the Web simply because the kind of information it contains (short texts, timely, searchable and heavily cross-referenced) is better carried on electronically. Undoubtedly, the Internet has disturbed the traditional pattern of the publishing industry.

The benefits of reading need not be over-emphasised. Suffice it to say that research indicates that although printed materials are not the only avenue to learning, they stimulate thinking and writing specially among students. Irrespective of whether one reads for satisfying intellectual or spiritual needs, to meet practical demands of daily living, to remain abreast with the latest developments in one?s field, for self-development and for extending one?s cultural and intellectual horizons, or simply to understand current happenings, build one?s vocabulary, strengthen one?s use of language in addition to instilling a love of literature, books, periodicals and newspapers remain the vehicle par excellence. Indeed, the absence of reading ?impoverishes one?s capacity for interpreting what one reads?. (Staiger, 1979)

It is often argued that a major deterrent to acquiring the reading habit is the exorbitant price of books which render them inaccessible to the masses. Millions of titles are published annually. Yet, it is virtually impossible for the average reader to get hold of even a small percentage of these. Libraries can thus truly act as democratic institutions by acquiring a significant proportion of the latest bestsellers for instance, and make them available to individuals either for reference or on loan.