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New England Prep School Library Goes Entirely Digital
An anonymous reader writes to mention that Cushing Academy has decided to leap into the future by getting rid of all the books in their library and going completely digital. Instead of dusty stacks, the library is spending close to half a million dollars to install all the hallmarks of a digital learning center. Flat screen TVs, "laptop friendly carrels," and a coffee shop are just the first step in building an area that allows students access to millions of books as opposed to several thousand. Of course, not everyone is completely sold on this move: "[Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association] said the move raises at least two concerns: Many of the books on electronic readers and the Internet aren't free and it may become more difficult for students to happen on books with the serendipity made possible by physical browsing. There's also the question of the durability of electronic readers. 'Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I don't see how that need is going to be met,' Fiels said. 'Books are not a waste of space, and they won't be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand, survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens, there will be next to no difference between that and a book.'"
I love computers, but I love books. This makes me sad.
Let the Ministry of Truth references fly.
Anyway I can get any book I want digitally already. I go to the library to get a real book to take to waiting rooms and restaurants and such.
I guess they couldn't fit the starbucks in with all those shelves taking up space.
... to read a book on paper than on a computer screen.
As I look around my room I see all the books that I have finished or want to read. When I have finished a paper book, I see the pages dwindling as I reach the end. The book has weight and after I've read it I feel that heft and know that I've done something worth while.
I don't have a kindle and doubt I would ever buy one. I love turning physical pages. I like the durability. I like that I can have four books going and open at the same time. I like the book jackets and am very close to getting a novel of my own published.
The paper book is not at all threatened by the kindle. Not in the slightest.
"Dusty stacks" - hmm... you mean books which still work even though they are 5, 10, or more years old. How many people would be happy with their children learning using ten year old computers? Most tech is useless after 3 or 4 years, let alone ten years.
Works for a super rich private school, not going to happen in the public sector.
In Soviet Russia ... this doesn't happen ;)
Bark less. Wag more.
I hate DRM as much as the next guy but libraries seem like one of those cases where it's either DRM or no digital content at all. Without DRM I doubt that many books would be copied less than a hundred times a year per library-owned copy. It's absolutely not going to happen for commercial publishers and not going to happen with most academic publishers either.
I buy lots of books. And when I get access to pdf files that are user manuals, I frequently print them. Sorry, but I just don't like reading from a computer screen. I do it all day already.
Yes, digital media is superior in many ways, but I find it easier to browse a printed document than a digital document. Perhaps it's merely a matter of technology; browsing on a computer is not as easy.
And, I agree that browsing through books on shelves allows for serendipity. Weird, sometimes out-of-print books show up on library shelves and turn out to have unexpected value. Doing a family genealogy in Seattle, I came across a little book about grave markers in Shelby Co, Ohio. Yup, some ancestors were in that book.
Best regards.
Libraries are on their way out, we're already slipping into an information dark age. The modern library wouldn't have a chance in hell if it were invented today. I mean just imagine trying to convince publishers today to not only let people read their books for free, but to let them take them home, you'd be thrown out on your ass. We're living in a time where there's a wealth of information, but it's so locked up that you can't do anything with it unless you're wealthy.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
I know I'm a bit of a Luddite, but I, too, don't consider buying ebooks. And I would buy more CDs if they would lower the price to something reasonable. Like $5. But I do buy CDs.
;)
But you make good points. My (baby boom) generation won't be the consumers of this new media as much as the following generations.
One of my complaints is that technology turns out to be so disposable. Today's whizzy book reader is tomorrow's broken, toxic waste. I've got old computers, old CRT monitors, old disk drives, printers, scanners, motherboards, TVs, you name it. You say that books are a waste of resources that take up space. I say books are easily recyclable and that Kindles are yet another flash-in-the-pan piece of go-seh.
You can have my books when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Best regards.
My commentary: solar is the smarter choice, because we have a virtually infinite supply of it as long as this rock in space is habitable for humans.