Cushing Academy, a private prep school in the Boston area, may very well be the first school in the United States to remove the books from their library. In fact, they are ditching the library model entirely in lieu of a high-tech learning center with 3 flat screen TVs, 18 electronic readers and a coffee shop.
According to the Cushing website, students weren't using the books for research and had turned, instead, to electronic information sources. The school has decided to use the space taken up by their book collection (20,000 volumes) to create more community gathering places.
It's a controversial move. In an interview with David Abel of the Boston Globe, Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association, 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." Some school staff, including the librarian, voiced concerns about the move as well.
Despite my love for gadgets and technology, the idea of a world without books saddens me. I don't prefer to use an e-reader and I like the tactile experience of curling up with a paper book. Electronic books have their place - I'd love to see kids have access to electronic textbooks rather than lugging around so many heavy tomes - but there is still a place for their paper counterparts and will be for a long, long time.
What do you think?
Electronic resources are definitely superior for research. With online search capabilities, it is much easier to find the information that you need, and almost everything is online. There is still, however, a place for paper books. Libraries are not just for research. They are for browsing, discovering, enjoying. They are also for checking out books to take with you that you can enjoy without worrying about downloads and battery life.
I was an English teacher during the digital revolution and oversaw my students’ switch to primarily electronic resources for their research papers. While I loved the convenience of electronic research, I also observed that students were rapidly losing book skills, such as skimming and scanning for information and using indexes and table of contents. I always required some non-electronic sources so that they had to use those skills at least a little.
A library without books is not a library.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that not every single publication could possibly be available electronically. Besides, what about kids’ eyes and backs? I know that sitting at a computer for hours and hours is murder on my spine. Kids should be able to check out books to take home and read as well.
I agree with other posters here. I loved having the articles and books available on line while I was doing research for my Masters program. It saved so much time and energy and lugging around of periodicals and time at the library. I also think the electronic readers are fascinating, and so much easier to get books quickly and carry them with you.
That being said, there is nothing like curling up with a good (paper) book in hand. “Picture” books are some of my favorite things to read and definitely have an impact on early readers ability to discern the printed word. On screen would just not be the same. And for all those night time, read-before-falling-asleep children (and adults), an electronic reader just somehow loses the relaxation impact to me.
Let’s just keep both… like keeping computers and paper and pens….
Electronic resources are great for reference materials. They can make a lot of reference materials widely available that you would formerly have had to traveled to have access to, or maybe would never be able to access bc they were too rare or valuable to be in a public-access area. You can search vast volumes of info, fit a lot into a small space, and don’t have to be a victim of poorly-indexed works. Also, you can speedily settle over-dinner debates about historical facts!
But I can’t really imagine a world without paper books for fiction, or even a lot of non-fiction like biographies, history, or philosophy. The Dumbest Generation observed that many young people are losing their abilities to think about or process information themselves because it is so easily available online to be looked up. Learning about facts is seldom just memorizing stuff that can be looked up; it’s also the process of learning how to learn, how to place facts in context and integrate them into a larger analysis or understanding.
Plus, the Cushing Academy example is a bit different than overall. Presumably the students have online access to any thing they would have needed from the school library. But not all kids (or adults) are so priveleged; not everyone has the same access to the Web or electronic sources. The nice thing about libraries is all you need is a library card (free!).
I was talking with my husband the other day about gadgets taking over our lives. I think of college students now taking notes on their computers instead of with simple paper and pen. Now stories like this make me wish for the “good old days” when books were books, those simple bound pages you could read in bed and stack on your bookshelf.
I hope when I’m a grandma, I’m not having to curl up with an electronic gadget that I have to squint at because the books I want to read are no longer available in good old print. I think it’s important for our kids to have the paper feel in their hands too. There’s something special about a book and magazine you can hold in your hands.
I think there will come a time and a generation that will get rid of books, but I don’t want it to be now and my generation
I love reading but have no sentimental attachment to books (I prefer my trees in living form, thanks very muc). I’m all for this, but how can the library possibly manage with only 18 eBook readers?
I agree with all you guys, especially Denise.
There’s something so wonderful about the feel and smell of a book, and the way a much beloved book simply drops open at your favorite parts – perhaps wedged open by all the sand and sunscreen from that trip to the beach. Besides, you can read a book in the bathtub. Try that with a Kindle and you could be electrocuted.