Like a Fire Bell in the Night

Thomas Jefferson can be faulted for a lot of things (especially things we needn't dwell on here) but his warning quoted in our title today regarding the rending asunder of the United States was prescient to say the least. Here in the True Archives world we constantly preach about the dangers of jettisoning the codex for a brave new world of superficial skim readers, and occasionally we get a few allies in our warnings. The historians at Colby College know the disappearing book portends a disappearing intellect, and that millennials will never learn to craft engaging historical essays without the constant referral of the legacy of those who came before. But the Information Scientist doesn't care about history any more; in fact, he relishes in the creation of an entire generation that thinks, acts, and speaks as if they just landed on the planet. This betrayal of Clio is indeed one of the darkest aspects of the digital age.