A Library With No Books?
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This week's 'Room for Debate' from The New York Times takes a look at school libraries and asks: In this increasingly digital age, do school libraries need books? Most of us grew up 'in the stacks'--rows upon rows of titles from the obscure and dusty to the well-read and well-worn. But with the expense of maintaining a 'traditional' library and the shift from print to Web, some are wondering whether resources should be directed toward building up the digital stacks.
So the Times solicited the opinions of a boarding school headmaster, library director, two authors and an English professor from the University of Maryland.
Here's an excerpt from what author Nicholas Carr had to say:
It’s hardly a surprise, then, that some educators, librarians, and parents would begin to see books — expensive, cumbersome, distressingly low-tech — as dispensable. Once an oxymoron, the “bookless library” is becoming a reality.
But if we care about the depth of our intellectual and cultural lives, we’ll see that emptying our libraries of books is not an example of progress. It’s an example of regress.
The pages of a book shield us from the distractions that bombard us during most of our waking hours. As an informational medium, the book focuses our attention, encouraging the kind of immersion in a story or an argument that promotes deep comprehension and deep learning.
Comments
I agree (both).
That's a difficult argument. I love the ease of being able to read what I like on my laptop, but I am in awe when I visit the library in downtown Los Angeles. It not only houses books, but art and history. I know not every library is like that, but I couldn't imagine it disappearing and my children not being able to see such an amazing place.
I say develop both.
Not everyone has digital access, but everyone is more or less capable of using a physical library. I say don't do away with the traditional library for the sake of people who like to immerse themselves within the pages of a good read; but at the same time do invest in ways to extend knowledge beyond walls. Besides who is to say that a digital database of volumes of book won't run into glitches. Its no secret that the acquiring and preservation of knowledge is an expensive duty.