The Modern School Library, No Books

For one Boston Prep school, the satisfying turn of the page and row upon row of books have been replaced by the calculated clack of keyboards and endlessness of the internet. As the modern library it seems, contains no actual books. The Cushing Academy has donated most of its catalog of 20,000 books, purchasing $10,000 worth of Amazon Kindles, which equates to 18 devices, to take their place. In total, the new learning center (apparently the term ‘library’ was outdated too) will include some $500,000 worth of upgrades.

The Boston Globe reports:

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.

Beyond debating the merits of providing high school students with unfettered access to massive amounts of caffeine, the decision to get rid of the books has been met with mixed reviews. People worry that moving to a completely digital system limits the possibility of accidental discovery that one gets when browsing the aisles, as well as impacts the physical reading experience, leading to more of the skimming and distraction that have come to typify online behavior.

For their part, the students interviewed at the Cushing Academy don’t appear particularly troubled by the news, noting that most of their peers don’t even read books anyway. And the numbers support that fact, “School officials said when they checked library records one day last spring only 48 books had been checked out, and 30 of those were children’s books.” Somewhere, Melvil Dewey is rolling over.

Boston Globe: Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.