Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.
A Boston Globe article, “Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.”, covers the Cushing Academy’s new “library”–all digital, no books. That’s right, not “fewer books” but “no books.”
I think that much of what they describe would work well in a library, especially a wealthy prep school library with well-off kids. But there is still a role for books. There is so much information that is simply not online and that can only be found in books. To remove books from the kids’ environment completely is not to be forward looking but to be blind to the present state of things.
Buying 18 Kindles & Sony eBook Readers is not the same as having a library full of books. Browsing isn’t anywhere near the same. Serendipity is pretty much gone except through advertisers’ recommendations. Besides which, most books are still not available on either of those devices. And I’m sorry, but reading on those devices is not the same as reading a printed book. Until the resolution of the printed word on screen matches that of the printed word on paper, I don’t think we’ll see many converts….even young ones.
Ah, enough ranting about the value of books. I’m getting way too heated. I’m going to go have a time-out in the corner of my office and take a break to read a *gasp* book. 
September 11th, 2009 at 9:50 am
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September 11th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Well said, Sarah! There’s just something about the smells, the sounds and the feel of holding a book and physically interacting with it that makes books stay relevant, even in the future! There were even books present on the Starship Enterprise! Sorry, inner geek coming out. But books should never be relegated solely to electronic devices — how else will you read when you run your battery down?
September 11th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I brought this up with my class the other day (all new Freshmen at a small college) The points they called out the 12K Esspresso machine! and only 18 ebook readers.
My point was, when (not IF) this fails, how are they going to replace a library???
September 11th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
When I read the heading for this topic, I wanted to cry… A LOT! Besides isn’t looking at a screen for hours at a time bad for your eyes? I think you’re supossed to take your eyes away from it 15 minutes or so. The reason why I’m going to college to be a librarian is because I want people to know how valuable books really are. As Jim noted, the smell and sound of books and just holding them is relevant to the world. My fear is that libraries will end up like Cushing Academy’s all over the US, if not, the world. @_@
September 11th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
ugh. right idea, wrong execution. i’d love to see how this guy convinced the school to ditch 20,000 volumes in favor of tv screens and coffee shops! although books as the treasured resource we once knew are on the way out, there will always be a place for physical volumes–particularly novels, poetry and “the classics.” partly it’s the tactile sensations of the books, but mostly it’s that digital information is only as secure as the hardware it’s coded for. if you drop a book, you don’t lose all of the information it contains.
September 11th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I’m not even sure if a perfect digital reading surface will do much to unseat books from their position in cultures across the world. We have an ingrained affinity for things which produce their own histories. There’s no story to an e-reader. You can’t set it on a shelf at home, reminisce, loan it out, prop things up, jump in and out, etc. There is a story to every well-worn book.
September 17th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Don’t forget about the pesky copyright thing. I love my sony ebook reader, but…unless I buy the book, i can only have access to it for the allotted circulation time. and there are just some books you need to own and hold and interact with…kinesthetically.