Library Removes All Books

Library Removes All Books

www.technovelgy.com

The library at the Cushing Academy, a fancy Boston prep school, has decided that books - physical, paper books - are just taking up too much space. So, they've gotten rid of the books in the library.

Instead, they've gone digital, and decided to just put out some laptops and about 18 ebook readers.

This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 9-9-2009 by Matrix Rising]

[edit on 9-9-2009 by Matrix Rising]

This is interesting.

I can't get that library like in the movie The Time Machine with Guy Pearce.

I think this makes sense. I can also see schools being replaced with digital classrooms. So kids can go to class from their laptop.

The article also says:

Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a “learning center,’’ though that is only one of the names in contention for the new space. In place of the stacks, they are spending $42,000 on three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

From Boston.com it says:

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’

www.boston.com...

I don't see anything wrong with this even though I prefer reading books. This is just a natural progression.

www.technovelgy.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Matrix Rising


Expect eyesight problems in a few years.

I have a problem with this, but then I am a bibliophile and nothing can replace the papercuts, the smell of the book and the joy of falling asleep to a good story and waking up to turn the light off and find the bookmark.

Our Institution is currently culling books etc that are over 15 years old or have had few withdrawals. This is bad criteria for removal as some books are never issued, rather they are used in the library and returned to the stack; and some old texts have the original source information which is important when referencing.
Our librarian is against this as well and I think that rather than removing the books and replacing them with a glorified cafe they should have upgraded their wireless so that people have the choice of browsing online or hard copy.

It also concerns me that students are able to access lectures online. This already leads to diminished lecture appearances and lack of appreciation of nuance and additional information.
Damn kids expecting everything instantly.
I dislike this innappropriate use of technology for so-called ease of learning. I think in the long run this style/approach will increase the output of automata and people unable to think for themselves or value information and knowledge.

Yuk.

Ah but the feel of an old book between your finger tips, the smell of a fresh new one, I dont know this is not good at all, plus comps can give you tumors and eyesight problems with as much as the students have to read.

"I guess Ill go curl up with a good laptop"

reply to post by Matrix Rising



There is a big problem with this. Digital information can be changed however certain people want it to be changed to fulfill and indoctrinate into one particular agenda, meanwhile you can't do this in a library with books, unless they start banning just certain books.

This sort of indoctrination is easier, and less expensive to do if it is done to digital media.

The indoctrination scheme continues ongoing.

reply to post by Matrix Rising


This will make it very easy for the Ministry of Truth to alter any embarrassing facts.

Yup. Not workin' for me. In a rush to seem so techno-savvy they are shooting themselves in the foot.

Good luck reading your 'books' when the power is out for more than a few hours. You might have candle, but it's not going to help.

Good luck keeping your digital books true to the authors original content or even INSTALLED on your 'readers' when big brother decides he needs to reach in an snatch up anything that might be seditious or terroristic.

Booooo!

sold themself to the devil ;p




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[edit on 10-9-2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

I don' like this at all !!
It brings to mind the book "Fahrenheit 451"

This statement from the second paragraph in the OP:

"The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences.

What will happen to the books that are not given away

[edit on 9-9-2009 by azureskys]

Originally posted by Matrix Rising

I think this makes sense. I can also see schools being replaced with digital classrooms. So kids can go to class from their laptop.

It's already happening. It's called homeschooling. There are a ton of online accredited schools in which you work from home. If you got the money. The cheapest I found was $1500.00.

Horrifying.



No second line needed here.



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[edit on 10-9-2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

True Story. Years ago, I made a search on an American Unix library catalog back when such things were new, for an obscure book written by Prince Peter Kropotkin of the precommunist regime in Russia.

The screen returned the message:

TITLE NOT AVAILABLE. GRAB YOUR PHASER, AND MEET ME OUT BACK IN 5 MINUTES !

Subsequently, our Library outed the information to the community that titles searched or checked out information on patrons was compiled and shared with federal law enforcement.

The point being, as soon as computers were used to replace card catalog searches, privacy was lost and certain subjects, authors, and titles became flagged for law enforcement or simply became unavailable.

Should we not be free to read anything without being profiled? Do we not need to know? Everything?

The best and most obscure writings will decay and disappear unless scanned by some bibliophile.

They better save whats left in hermetically sealed containers in John Connor's cave

Great, another generation of uneducated people.

The wonderful thing about a book is the textile feel of the book itself. Now War and Peace will have the same heft of toting it around as say My Pet Goat. It all feels the same on a laptop.

But what about the fact that reading retention is higher in a book format than digital?

reply to post by Matrix Rising


Great idea for saving space.

the only problem I forsee is, what if some event occurs that destroys or damages all electronic storage mediums?

We would be up the creek without a paddle....

I'm just sayin...

ExACTly what I was thinking, warrenb.... if the grid fails, all the literature is lost. Old books will be a black market item, except NOBODY WILL CARE!!!

A world without books is a world I don't want to live in.

I have two opinions on this issue.

1) If you are just going to read a book straight through, you should have a physical book. It's much better and you can bring it with you anywhere you want.

2) If you are just looking up information, data, or looking up something in a text-book, online books are fantastic.

I had a course where our book was online (or you could pay $140 and get the physical version too) and it made my life so much easier. The book was heavy, and I did not have to lug it around. I could bring my laptop anywhere and read it, or use the libraries computers.

The BEST part about this electronic book, was the search function. This has been a major pet peeve of mine for years.
Especially since this was a finance class, and I did not have the time to go through 5 chapters looking for 1 small paragraph about some formula. I would just plop in the name, or actual formula into the search box and it would bring me right to the page and paragraph. Made my life so much easier.

Good article btw S&F

reply to post by Matrix Rising


As long as this is a prep school and not a public library I do not care. I expect some parents will be making other arrangements for the education of their kids. Occasionally, a book will catch the eye of a reader who otherwise would never pick it up and read it. Digital information is good for research. Libraires impart knowlegde otherwise people would never attain. May the graduates of this school become bussiness men who have no interest in politics.

this is just UNBELIEVABLE!.
What about people that can't read eBooks because they can't concentrate on them? (like me) ? And... what's gonna happen if somebody just press the "del" button and "oops, i accidentally deleted the whole library!"?
I'm starting to feel t6hat my little book collection is going to be a little treasure in some years... and that surely scares me a lot.

It is bad for someone's eye sight to sit and look at a tv or computer screen all day. There are going to be a lot of people needing glasses.

I guess optometrists will benefit from it.

what are the environmental implications

Energy and materials are produced when making books, but once produced, you do not need to generate further energy every time you wish to read them and they are then energy "free" for the rest of their "lifetimes"- with this method is it not just needless extra use of electricity?