It‘s just a tool: fifteen years of personal computing

“You say you‘re ready to buy a personal computer for your library or your own personal use.” That‘s how this all began, back in 1984. Fifty articles and 15 years later, it‘s time to wrap it up. This is the final “Trailing Edge” and, for a while, the author‘s last article in Library Hi Tech. Waxing historical, Crawford looks back at how those old articles look from a distance. One key message is that, now as then, personal computers are tools. Sometimes fascinating, frequently frustrating, and oftentimes enabling tools, but tools nonetheless: not life, and not inherently revolutionary.