November 15, 2011 - Inside Higher Education - Barbara Fister
Ten years ago, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper published a nifty book about how and why people use paper in their workplaces. The Myth of the Paperless Office reported ethnographic observations of people struggling to do things with computers that they were used to doing on paper; sometimes there were good reasons why paper was so persistent. The title reminded us that the “paperless office” we were promised decades ago is a joke - on us. We use more paper than ever and manage to have disorderly desktops both literally and digitally. That's a funny kind of progress.
Now we have the bookless library. What is it about the concept of a library without books that is so sensational? Is it because it’s so bold? So heretical? So man-bites-dog exotic?
The Cushing Academy got a lot of ink in 2009 when the Boston Globe quoted its headmaster as saying “when I look at books, I see an outdated technology.” He planned to replace them with Kindles. (This much-discussed article is now behind the Globe’s new paywall; if you're curious, you can buy access to it for a little under five bucks.)
Here are some more recent examples:
Time magazine: Is a Bookless Library Still a Library? (on Drexel University’s new Learning Terrace)
Gainsville Sun: Library Without Books is on UF ‘Wish List’(on planned renovation of historic Newell Hall)
IHE: A Truly Bookless Library (UT San Antonio’s Applied Engineering and Technology Library)
In the last case, Stanford’s engineering library had to relinquish the title for booklessness. Though it made headlines for losing the books before UT San Antonio, it cheated and actually kept some. Rather than being literally true, being bookless is “a vision statement,” according to a library official.
Every now and then, someone who doesn’t do research and hasn’t been following issues relating to intellectual property, digital rights management, or academic publishing (let alone scholar's preferences) argues that we need to do something radical to get over our fetish for outdated technology, suggesting that we burn books or ban them. These visionaries assume that everything that matters is digital and free, so why bother keeping paper copies? Silly librarians.These guys should read that Globe article. Of course, they'll have to pay,
In fact, going bookless is not particularly popular. Books are strongly and positively identified with libraries, and libraries that ditch them get into trouble with the communities they serve, even when they have good reasons for reducing the number of books sitting on shelves.
The Cushing Academy got a lot of ink in 2009 when the Boston Globe quoted its headmaster as saying “when I look at books, I see an outdated technology.” He planned to replace them with Kindles. (This much-discussed article is now behind the Globe’s new paywall; if you're curious, you can buy access to it for a little under five bucks.)
Here are some more recent examples:
Time magazine: Is a Bookless Library Still a Library? (on Drexel University’s new Learning Terrace)
Gainsville Sun: Library Without Books is on UF ‘Wish List’(on planned renovation of historic Newell Hall)
IHE: A Truly Bookless Library (UT San Antonio’s Applied Engineering and Technology Library)
In the last case, Stanford’s engineering library had to relinquish the title for booklessness. Though it made headlines for losing the books before UT San Antonio, it cheated and actually kept some. Rather than being literally true, being bookless is “a vision statement,” according to a library official.
Every now and then, someone who doesn’t do research and hasn’t been following issues relating to intellectual property, digital rights management, or academic publishing (let alone scholar's preferences) argues that we need to do something radical to get over our fetish for outdated technology, suggesting that we burn books or ban them. These visionaries assume that everything that matters is digital and free, so why bother keeping paper copies? Silly librarians.These guys should read that Globe article. Of course, they'll have to pay,
In fact, going bookless is not particularly popular. Books are strongly and positively identified with libraries, and libraries that ditch them get into trouble with the communities they serve, even when they have good reasons for reducing the number of books sitting on shelves.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/myth-bookless-library#ixzz1dz98xOOf
Inside Higher Ed
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