‘Available Online’ Not Good News to All

It is interesting—coincidental?—that the January 2001 issue of Physics Today, with its pasted-on cover sheet proclaiming “Everything in your hands is available online,” also contains a letter from Cynthia Cudaback (page 70 ) saying, “Reading a paper on the computer screen is uncomfortable, hard on the eyes, and does not allow marginal notes.” Amen!

I don’t want everything online. I like to hold Physics Today (and all other books and publications) in my hands, sit down in a comfortable chair, and read. I want to be able to change position and not be anchored stiffly in place by a computer screen. I want to flip the pages back and forth at will and not have to wait for a page to reload. I want to be able to leave the magazine for a while and pick it up again later without having to take the time (sometimes a lot of time) to go online again and find the Web site.

Electronic storage of journals and the like is wonderful for research of previously published papers and articles, and it certainly saves storage space, but for the first time around, give me the bound printed copy on paper, please.