Why Dontcha Just Scan That Old Stuff and Toss It?

Millennials want to be able to push buttons and then say "Look Mom, I am doing research!" We can only imagine the depth of historical inquiries that are based on such "drive-by" analysis of primary source material, but the problem with this approach goes far beyond the superficiality of the produced essays. There is a sense that once archival material becomes digitized, the need to retain the paper original is gone, and that archives simply waste resources by maintaining environmentally controlled storage spaces for ink on dead tree by-product. The evil Information Scientist greedily views our plush reading rooms and controlled storage space as opportunities to expand their empire of personal computer screens. Their arguments for deaccessioning historical documents will only become more strident as time goes on.