It now seems like there is a winning eBook reader and that, much as the iPod conquered the personal music market, the Kindle has a good chance of doing the same with books, magazines and other reading materials.

So, maybe it’s time to wonder about the broader impacts of having such a wonderful, new electronic device.

Although it seems hard to imagine that all reading will shift to the Kindle (or its progeny), it is possible to imagine books become like rare medieval hand-written manuscripts are today.  Rare and rarely seen.

To some extent, a successful Kindle may noticeably or drastically reduce the number of old-fashioned books in circulation.  Would that be a problem? Well, yes, in some ways.

It might make it harder for some people (think younger people, poor people, etc.) to get hold of books and reading material.  That would be unfortunate.

It might also lessen the availability of hard documentation for future historians.

Every time a hard disk fails, for instance, documents and emails may vanish forever if the proper backup had not been performed.  Will future electronic devices (and the web services they depend on) somehow go “on the blink” in the future, obliterating important written works?

Will we see rapid changes in technology (making old technology obsolete) such that written material is lost in the transition?  The music comparison comes to mind where we’ve gone from 78 rpm records (does anybody remember these or have any?) to 33 1/3 and 45 rpm records, to 8-track tapes (admittedly, just a flash in the pan and unlikely to have caused any serious music losses), to CDs, mp3s, and iPod/iTunes music.

I know I have a number of 33 1/3 records that have not been commercially converted to CD and the songs on those records will probably fade and die with time.

Will something similar happen to the information contained in books in the future as a result of popular and effective eBook readers?

Let’s hope not.