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.'"

Comments

Books are good

[emj]

Everyone knows you can't beat a book, when you are off grid, but while on grid an ebook is far superior. Libraries are veïry much on grid and should not just contain lots of books, they should make it easy and free to access all this data that is locked up in DRM. We are stuck with DRM at the moment maybe libraries could help us get sane access to the books encumbered with them.

Defeats the purpose of libraries

[Azureflare]

This defeats the whole purpose of the library. You go there so you have free access to books. If you end up having to pay for them, how is that different from buying it anywhere else?

Sounds like they just wanted to get rid of the library and use the building space for something else. Oh yes, here we go:

Tracy and other administrators said the books took up too much space and that there was nowhere else on campus to stock them. So they decided to give their collection - aside from a few hundred children's books and valuable antiquarian works - to local schools and libraries.

Oh look, beancounters deciding to abandon the literary arts! What a surprise. Except not, since this is America after all. At least they donated them rather than burning them or throwing them out.

The sad part is they additionally justify this by saying the library wasn't used very much.

Tia Alliy, a 16-year-old junior, said she visits the library nearly every day, but only once looked for a book in the stacks. She's not alone. School officials said when they checked library records one day last spring only 48 books had been checked out, and 30 of those were children's books.

How can they possibly tell how the library is utilized by checkout rates? The whole point of a school library is to go there, find a book you need to reference, make copies of the relevant pages, and go.

Re:Terrible idea

[arthurpaliden]

My son's middle school was built at the height of the 'dot-com' craze. It did not have real library (broom closet) just a bunch of computer labs. Two years ago they refit three of the classrooms next to the 'library' and built a real library full of real books.