The following is taken from the BibleWorks website:
Some Thoughts About Electronic Libraries
We continue to encourage our users to think carefully before building large electronic libraries, for two reasons:
1. There is no guarantee computers will, in as few as ten years, be able to read today’s electronic media. For example, read “At Libraries, Taking the (Really) Long View” from Inside Higher Ed, July 23, 2008 and “The Digital Ice Age” from Popular Mechanics, December 2006.
2. Even more significantly, almost all electronic libraries are in proprietary formats: there is no standard. Proprietary formats, and the software that reads them, come and go (remember DOS?). A recent article in Christian Computing, “Is It Time for a Second STEP?“, noted the unlikelihood of a standard format emerging. When an electronic library’s proprietary format is abandoned, one’s investment in the library is lost.
Books, on the other hand, are independent of computers. If you use certain reference works on a daily basis, it may make sense to purchase electronic editions, and, for this reason, we are providing (and will continue to provide) a limited collection of locked electronic resources for those who want them. But in our opinion it makes sense to buy print editions first, then electronic editions if you find you really need them.
