Those who were fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Captain Jean Luc Picard may remember that his crew would sometimes comment on his quaint habit of reading books.
Well, the 23rd century has obviously arrived sooner than we thought it would. According to the Boston Globe, Cushing Academy is replacing its library’s entire book collection with three flat panels, some Kindles, and a coffee bar. They believe that this move
will allow students access to millions of books and resources on the Internet, rather than discourage student reading. Read on for the whole story:
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Personally, I think Cushing’s decision is monstrous. We’ll see if families react and vote with their feet. It will be interesting to see if getting rid of books in their library will have a negative or positive impact on their enrollments.
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Books – the original search engines!
And what about browsing through?
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Constance, thanks for your comment! I can’t imagine a library without books. I think Cushman is totally missing the tactile dimension of holding a book.
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For “books-as-entertainment” and “books-as-tools”, I think electronic libraries are easy to justify. You’re saving trees, dollars, and space, while giving readers access to much larger collections that you’d probably have on paper. Books of these types really have relatively short ‘shelf lives’ anyway. Popular fiction quickly becomes dated, and the rapid evolution of trends and technologies makes business and technical books quickly obsolete.
But then there are books with which I make an emotional connection, books that I’ll come back to again and again. These are what I call books-as-art, and I’m happy to spend the money to possess these in high-quality editions that’ll last for years.
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Dwight, thanks for your comments. It’s that tangible feel of the book in hand, and the fact that every time one picks it up, that emotional connection can be rekindled (so to speak). I hate to see the younger generation lose that entirely; at least they should have a chance to develop it during the college years.