Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:56:24 +0530 From: Rafiq <rafiq.ansari@timesgroup.com> Dear All, We are debating a very subjective issue. People not coming to Library and not borrowing books in no way indicate decline in reading habits. Reading today has shifted from print to electronic. Downloading e-books or taking print out of searched pages from the Internet is as good as physically borrowing books from the Library. In the present milieu (though it has always been so), the world is a university where learning is online. And no learning is possible without reading; I repeat reading - be it physical or online. The crux of the issue, nevertheless, is that "Reading is Living", and a person who does not read dies before time, he may be physically alive, though. So let's strive to promote "reading habit" per se rather than wasting efforts in finding results of surveys indicating that the reading habit is declining. Regards, Rafiq Ansari Senior Manager - Library Television Division The Times of India Group Mumbai Tel - (022) 24810633 rafiq.ansari@gmail.com -----Original Message----- Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:49 AM Subject: [LIS-Forum] Declining reading habits Dear All, Declining reading habits are one of the major concerns of nearly all libraries today. [truncated]