Today I got a big set of books from the wonderful UH library system for the upcoming War Powers college CEDA/NDT topic and I was reminded of the value of analog – i.e. “books” – in the process of debate research.

Now, this insight is not all that novel, in fact it perhaps dates me a bit. But I thought I’d post a few thoughts on why books are still relevant and useful, despite the overwhelming preference of debaters to find their evidence in electronic formats.

Uniqueness – Books have articles and chapters and writing that you can’t find elsewhere, often not even electronically. This fact is lost on those who do not read books that often. But I can’t emphasize enough that there are very good cards to be found in books that you won’t find on the interwebs (see below) .
Context – Books as a genre … Read More »