I wanted to shaare this blog I came across while I was blogging/searching the other blogs.

Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.
September 10, 2009

A Boston Globe article, “Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.”, covers the Cushing Academy’s new “library”–all digital, no books. That’s right, not “fewer books” but “no books.”

I think that much of what they describe would work well in a library, especially a wealthy prep school library with well-off kids. But there is still a role for books. There is so much information that is simply not online and that can only be found in books. To remove books from the kids’ environment completely is not to be forward looking but to be blind to the present state of things.

Buying 18 Kindles & Sony eBook Readers is not the same as having a library full of books. Browsing isn’t anywhere near the same. Serendipity is pretty much gone except through advertisers’ recommendations. Besides which, most books are still not available on either of those devices. And I’m sorry, but reading on those devices is not the same as reading a printed book. Until the resolution of the printed word on screen matches that of the printed word on paper, I don’t think we’ll see many converts….even young ones.

Ah, enough ranting about the value of books. I’m getting way too heated. I’m going to go have a time-out in the corner of my office and take a break to read a *gasp* book. http://online.twu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_198080_1%26url%3D