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Iowa College Goes Paperless

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the go-ahead-order-a-transcript-just-try-it dept.

As reported in this Wired article, joelav22 writes that an "Iowa college plans to go completely paperless. There are no libraries, just work stations for e-books and online information. the article supports that 'The school plans to be an entirely paper-free campus. Last year, about 75 telecommunications students participated in a pilot program to go paperless. Each student used a Compaq iPaq handheld to access e-textbooks, syllabi and class materials, and to take notes and exams.' less time spent in a library equals more time for beer and filming amateur Girls Gone Wild digital video!"

3 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Money? by /dev/trash · · Score: 2, Informative
    Well where are they going to get the money for this kind of thing? I'm not spending my own money to buy a comp for that sort of thing. Also, what if the comp breaks... who is to blame and how are they going to replace it? :P

    That's a nice plan you have but more and more colleges are including the cost of laptops etc in the tuition, so yes you will buy a PC and you may not like it, but they don't care.

  2. Learning how to use a library is a skill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    ...a university skill, in fact. And no, it is not the same as using Google.

    I still have all my university books and notes. I don't need them often, but when I do I find them a great help.

    I also still possess the floppies I used in those days, on which are stored all the programming assignments I ever did. Unfortunately I seem to lack the required 5.25" drive I need to read them...

    Harddisks crash, magnetic material fades, and formats become obsolete. Paper OTOH is eternal.

    Conclusion: utterly stupid decision by that university.

  3. what about scientific journals? by sbedrick · · Score: 2, Informative
    So, the article says that the paperless program is for the business, technology, and "liberal arts" programs, but what will happen when they try and implement this in the science programs?

    My concern arises from the fact that most scientific journals don't have their pre-199x back-issues digitized. Most have their old abstracts online, but when it comes to full-text articles, most of the subject-specific journals simply don't go back far enough. As an example, look at the journal "Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton", whose full-text electronic archives don't go back any further than 1996 or so.

    JStor and a few other databases have done admirable jobs at breaking the pre-1990 barrier, but only for a very few titles.