Ask HN: New Libraries in the Age of LLMs?
5 comments
> if LLMs give us immediate summaries of every page stored in them
I assume very few people go to the library currently to read a summary, why would this change in the future?
The premise of all your questions assume others agree with you that books will be replaced.
The web has been "replacing" books for a long time. Books still exist.
I think LLMs will make knowledge in older books much more accessible via modernization and reinterpretations of now-Copyright-free stories from the past.
I assume very few people go to the library currently to read a summary, why would this change in the future?
The premise of all your questions assume others agree with you that books will be replaced.
The web has been "replacing" books for a long time. Books still exist.
I think LLMs will make knowledge in older books much more accessible via modernization and reinterpretations of now-Copyright-free stories from the past.
> The premise of all your questions assume others agree with you that books will be replaced.
Huh? Did I say books will disappear? Libraries and books are a separate thing.
> few people go to the library currently to read a summary
Enlighten me: what do people go to a library for these days?
Saving money? Ok. Not having to buy is a great reason.
Books that are unavailable online to buy? Get stolen eventually if secondary market exists.
So I assume a lot of it is for researching reasons, which is exactly what LLMs can provide.
Huh? Did I say books will disappear? Libraries and books are a separate thing.
> few people go to the library currently to read a summary
Enlighten me: what do people go to a library for these days?
Saving money? Ok. Not having to buy is a great reason.
Books that are unavailable online to buy? Get stolen eventually if secondary market exists.
So I assume a lot of it is for researching reasons, which is exactly what LLMs can provide.
> Enlighten me: what do people go to a library for these days?
Go to a library and look around and ask librarians - this varies extremely by community. Libraries are very local, and your questions tell me you have not spent much time in yours.
Go to a library and look around and ask librarians - this varies extremely by community. Libraries are very local, and your questions tell me you have not spent much time in yours.
Not everything important from a page is conveyed in a summary.
People who read fiction don’t want summaries.
LLMs hallucinate.
Libraries do more than house books. Librarians do FAR more than shelve books.
People who read fiction don’t want summaries.
LLMs hallucinate.
Libraries do more than house books. Librarians do FAR more than shelve books.
Fiction is of course a good reason to go into a library and not just research but also read the thing.
> Libraries do more than house books. Librarians do FAR more than shelve books.
I know a couple of librarians and 100% of them say that their their job is irrelevant.
As well as their institutions which is in part why I was posting this.
> Libraries do more than house books. Librarians do FAR more than shelve books.
I know a couple of librarians and 100% of them say that their their job is irrelevant.
As well as their institutions which is in part why I was posting this.
Should libraries focus on preserving physical books, on the experience of reading originals (or physical copies of them)? Or on enabling customers to improve the model of the LLM used? Or even on creating own ones?
Is there even a future role for them, outside of physical backups?