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

The Paper Book Remains King

[curmudgeon99]

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.

Re:The Paper Book Remains King

[Anonymous Coward]

As I type this comment I have in front of me the 1892 edition of Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader. At the foot of page 105 I can read the signature of a Jean Macalister dated March 15 1909. This signature personalizes the particular volume across time and I feel a bond with Jean even though our only link is our common the struggle with Sweet. Kindle can never provide this. However, another question arises: What Kindle version will be required to read the 2009 ebook edition in 2109?

I hold the same physical volume that Jean held a century ago. It requires no software or hardware upgrades to enable me to read it. No owner of this book has ever had to re-boot it because it was locked up. No one has ever had to recover it from backup. Its battery has never died. And because of its content, no one but another Anglo-Saxon scholar is likely to want to steal it. None of these statement is true for Krindle (or any other gadget).

I think people who use electronic readers are consumers of text (and there's nothing wrong with that). But for people for whom a book has a longer life, factors other than information content, narrowly defined, are more important in determining a book's value. A book is easy to use, it's portable, robust and you own it. The last point is worth noting, since your bookseller could not legally come into your house to retrieve a book that he claims was sold to you in error.

Summary: ebooks are useful but they certainly aren't books.

PS: AFAIK The Oxford University Press is not planning a digital version of Sweet's classic text.

Unlimited Budget.. yeah, and?

[popo]

"Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I don't see how that need is going to be met,' "

What part of "New England Prep School" did you not understand, Keith?

"dusty stacks" - as opposed to "broken tech"?

[fantomas]

"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.

Some good points

[mollog]

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. ;)