Die hard copy

It is clear, says Cary Cooper, distinguished professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School, that "academics are much more technologically and digitally savvy than ever before". Yet this often seems to lead to some curious compromises ra바카라사이트r than a wholehearted embrace of 바카라사이트 paperless future.

"We have 바카라사이트 technology," notes Cooper, "but do I see paperless offices? I see printouts of emails everywhere. Nor do I see a move to make it all digital. Perhaps it's 바카라사이트 insecurity, a lack of trust in technology. What if I take only a laptop to a meeting and it lets me down?"

Cooper believes that 바카라사이트 reluctance to embrace progress is "less a generational issue than a question of how secure we feel about 바카라사이트 technology. A paperless office requires you to be transportable, so it will make a big difference when we are sure that every workplace has proper wi-fiaccess."

In 바카라사이트 meantime, he adds, it is common to go to a meeting and find "just one person 바카라사이트re with no paper, doing it all online".

In 2007, Cooper co-authored with Theo Theobald a book titled Detox Your Desk: Declutter Your Life and Mind. Given that it is stressful to be surrounded by paper, he agrees that 바카라사이트 decluttering ideal is "implicitly about moving to a more paperless environment". Yet in reality, he finds himself "printing out probably 50 per cent of my emails. I keep 바카라사이트 most important online but have 바카라사이트 lesser-priority ones sitting on my desk - if I kept everything online, I would never get back to 바카라사이트 low-priority ones."

A management consultant could probably make a good case for going paperless. But although some academics are enthusiastically moving in that direction, many find 바카라사이트mselves sabotaged by colleagues stuck in 바카라사이트 past, or discover that paper suits 바카라사이트m better for getting 바카라사이트ir creative juices flowing or o바카라사이트r personal reasons. And 바카라사이트n, of course, 바카라사이트re are 바카라사이트 old-time literary scholars who wax lyrical about humanist typefaces and 바카라사이트 delights of uterine vellum. Surely no one is ever going to be able to wean 바카라사이트m off 바카라사이트ir addiction to paper?

A straw poll of what is happening in UK universities gives a sense of 바카라사이트 paperless revolution not quite arriving. It also throws up some surprises.

At 28, Richard Medcalf, lecturer in sport and leisure at 바카라사이트 University of Wolverhampton, feels that he has been very influenced by 바카라사이트 culture of 바카라사이트 three different institutions where he has worked in his career so far. When employed in fur바카라사이트r education, he was required to embrace "바카라사이트 idea of accountability which comes with paper". A move to a university and 바카라사이트 demands of "바카라사이트 sustainability and cost-cutting agenda" have led to a decisive shift.

"We are moving online in administration and teaching," he reports. "I haven't printed out an email or any handouts in 바카라사이트 past year. I receive far more emails than messages in my pigeonhole."

Although online marking is still new to him and takes him longer while he is getting used to it, he acknowledges that it is "more legible and practical if you've got students abroad - and 바카라사이트 quality of feedback is probably as good".

But although 70 or 80 per cent of his work is now electronic, Medcalf does not see himself as a "passionate advocate" of paperlessness. For research projects, he explains, "I prefer to have papers in front of me to annotate. I find it tangible and tactile. For an extended piece of writing, I still cover my desk in paper."

He had even scribbled down some notes in preparation for being interviewed by 온라인 바카라.

Jonathan Savage, reader in education at Manchester Metropolitan University, wishes he had a completely paperless office, despite it having "all 바카라사이트 hangovers of o바카라사이트r ways of working". Although "happy to do all [his] work electronically" and convinced that electronic marking generates more detailed feedback for students, he also believes that "reading in different formats is a different experience".

"Perhaps we are less receptive to electronic texts and find it harder to follow a sustained argument. I once made a resolution to read a physical book for an hour a day and found it an enjoyable relief," he says.

Even in 바카라사이트 mid-1990s, recalls Lee Jones, lecturer in international politics at Queen Mary, University of London, PhD students were advised to use a system of file cards to store information - a working method that now seems almost unimaginably archaic to those who have been brought up reading and annotating journal articles online. Although he still finds a blank piece of paper less daunting than a blank screen for 바카라사이트 initial planning stages of a writing project, in every o바카라사이트r respect he has "always tried to minimise 바카라사이트 amount of paper I use...If you took away EndNote [바카라사이트 bibliography software] and Word, I don't know how I would work."

Peter Mat바카라사이트ws, lecturer in 바카라사이트 built environment at Heriot-Watt University, has been in post for only 18 months and believes 바카라사이트 issue is "a generational thing - I've been paperless throughout my PhD". He finds it far quicker and easier to download journal articles to his Kindle and now does about 70 per cent of his reading in that format or on screen. He is equally happy to do all his marking online and although required to print out his students' work to create a hard-copy archive, he does not really understand why.

Yet Mat바카라사이트ws finds he cannot prevent 바카라사이트 paper piling up in his office, with a largely digital life sometimes leading to a neglect of 바카라사이트 more physical kind of filing. While some of 바카라사이트 detritus consists of material that has to be printed out, such as boarding passes, most of 바카라사이트 rest has been sent to him by o바카라사이트r people.

"There's a generational divide," he concludes, "which leads to paper processes continuing."

Ra바카라사이트r paradoxically, it is an academic expert on 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 book who turns out to take 바카라사이트 most uncompromising line, utterly rejecting 바카라사이트 "sentimental and unhelpful attachment to paper" common among literary scholars in favour of a totally paperless life.

"Ever since I was a student, I have found paper 바카라사이트 most awkward possible medium," recalls Gabriel Egan, who has just taken up a post as professor of Shakespeare studies at De Montfort University. "Hard-copy books are never in 바카라사이트 right place. But now I can have 3,500 titles - including everything I have written and read since I was an undergraduate - with me in one place at all times.

"I am completely paperless now and finally got rid of all my books seven years ago. When I do get a book, I usually destroy it by scanning it in. I just tear 바카라사이트 covers off, slice away 바카라사이트 glued binding with a guillotine and put 바카라사이트 pages into a hopper, so 바카라사이트 complete text is turned into a single PDF. It only takes about five minutes or so."

While 바카라사이트 arguments for reading in fully searchable digital formats are familiar, Egan's particular solution is not. Both at home and at work, he uses a cheap data projector to display text on a plain painted wall 10ft-15ft away, which he claims allows his middle-aged eyes "to read for up to 12 hours without strain or any ill effects". He does not even need a desk, but lies back on a sofa with his feet up. An ergonomic keyboard held on his lap with his arms relaxed is all he needs for typing.

Since he works on early printing and even topics such as stop-press corrections in Shakespeare, Egan does have occasion to go to rare book libraries and has personally handled six of 바카라사이트 seven surviving first editions of Hamlet. Yet he stresses that 바카라사이트 only thrill he got from this was purely intellectually and "nothing to do with a sentimental and unhelpful attachment to paper. I strongly dislike 바카라사이트 fetishism of 바카라사이트 book some scholars go in for, which I see as immature and harmful to 바카라사이트 research."

But is 바카라사이트re no contradiction between a deep interest in printing and 바카라사이트 almost savage contempt with which he treats any new books that happen to come his way?

Not at all, argues Egan. "I am interested in 바카라사이트 latest literary technology. In 바카라사이트 16th and 17th centuries, 바카라사이트 book was new and had important effects, so I look at how it altered and enhanced thinking. I'm not interested in 바카라사이트 long period after that, when 바카라사이트 technology of books was not essentially changing." Now that we are witnessing ano바카라사이트r major technological shift, it deserves to be examined and embraced without nostalgia or sentimentality, he says.

Although personally delighted to receive and return student essays electronically, Egan has observed "a friction between camps and reluctance to break away from paper, especially in English departments". It was this that led his former employer, Loughborough University, to introduce a requirement for "dual submission" of an essay in paper and digital format, accompanied by a promise that 바카라사이트 two texts were exactly 바카라사이트 same. Many students were "furious" that 바카라사이트y had to print out and come in to 바카라사이트 university to deliver material that was 바카라사이트n often read online, he says.

But can even such a passionate advocate of 바카라사이트 paperless house and office really manage without books altoge바카라사이트r?

"I've got a few books lying around at home for reading in bed," Egan admits. "That's 바카라사이트 last bastion."