Letting go of the book

Books. A big dilemma to organizers these days. People have book collections weighing down their space. Over the years and generations, books have been a way to share information, to learn about a wondrous world beyond your own boundaries.

Encyclopedias were and investment.
National Geographics were a window into an incredible world. People dreamt of travel and learnt about new cultures, physical landscapes and adventure.

Now, everything informative, is on-line. Books have been relegated to second hand stores, swap meets, and backwoods vacations.

This is not to say that reading is dying. Absolutely not. Sales of Ipads, Sony Readers, the Kindle etc clearly indicated people still love to read. However, it's taking up less physical space. And most of it is in cyberspace!

So there is the dilemma. What to do with book collections? Can people let go of their investments and reconcile that the value is not retained in having the physical book, but now in simply retaining the knowledge while letting go of the book?