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STAMP COLLECTING'S HUGE BODY OF LITERATURE...
It has to be transformed!

There is no question that philately---among all hobbies from photography to coin collecting---has the largest body of published literature of any pastime in the world. Even today, there are more than 700 philatelic periodicals being published throughout the world. And at the American Philatelic Research Library in State College, Pa., (certainly one of the largest repositories of our hobby's literature) there are more than 12,000 published titles available to the collector.

No matter what kind of information you need on what you are presently collecting, there is an excellent chance someone has published information about it---either in book form or in a magazine or journal article.

The problem, of course, is how to easily access this information. And much of it has always been quite accessible in the old manner of doing such things. For instance, if you find that the APRL has a book you might like to check out, you can use your local library's inter-library loan program and have them secure it for you from the APRL. But there are burdens to pay when you need to locate and check out the information you require. First you must locate it---an often cumbersome task that requires you to go through a library card catalog (the APRL's can be reached on the Internet at www.stamps.org.) Then you must go through the "check out" process---either through your own library or by contacting the library directly and waiting for your item to arrive in the mail.

You can, naturally, go to the library yourself---but since there are very few philatelic libraries available to you, this generally involves expensive travel.

There is a much easier way that collectors should be able to access this vast storehouse of information. Essentially, the custodians of our literature must now move vigorously into the digital age. Imagine, if you will, the day when you can get onto the Internet and not only locate the information you need, but be able to download the entire contents of books, catalogs, and periodicals. Or perhaps acquire the information on a digital storage medium (i.e., a Digital Video Disk -- DVD) at a nominal charge.

Yes, there should also be a minor charge for this kind of convenience. It will, after all, cost money to bring all of this huge body of information onto digital media---and we collectors should be willing to pay a small fee to, for instance, download (and print out for our own reading pleasure) an entire book published back in 1934---or to buy a DVD containing it.

We believe it is time for our hobby leaders to seriously address this vitally important issue---most especially within the framework of the American Philatelic Society and its sister organization, the APRL. Many of the world's libraries are already well on their way to accomplishing this with their own holdings.

The APS officers are presently addressing the issue of whether to expand their present office building and library by adding more bricks and mortar. That's going to be an expensive proposition. Wouldn't it be a wise idea to also address the equally important issue of how our wealth of information is to be stored and made accessible to us all well into the next century.

Finally, there is one overriding reason why our hobby's literature should move now to digital media: it will make all of it much more readily (and easily) available to every collector, regardless of his/her means. This is a price our hobby should be willing to pay.

What's your opinion?