Books, Pixels and Libraries, Oh My
The Boston Globe ran a story yesterday about some prep school doing the unthinkable. They are re-inventing the prep school library by giving away their 20,000 book collection and going exclusively into the e-book direction. That has spawned 416+ comments over on the original article. The book lovers arguments are a mix of passioned defense of the musty, duty venerable book and scorn for the electronic delivery of texts.
A funny thing is that I’m faced with a similar decision. I have hauled some books with me in all the various living locations for over 30 years. Books that I rarely glance, books that I reread every once in a while, and books that I’ve acquired, read, and have no interest in ever reading again. There are some books that I have that are priceless, out of print, on subjects that I and maybe 3 other people in the world would ever find fascinating, and never destined to live on a kindle.
Yet most of my collection is of books, paperbacks mostly, that offer nothing more than at some point providing a few hours of entertainment long ago. Why do I keep them? I think that’s where the Cushing Academy netted out. They looked at the book collection and then tried to figure out if anyone was using the books and discovered that only 48 books had been checked out and of those 30 were children’s books.
Keeping a library of books does require space. There’s a seductive allure to being able to say that your entire collection of literature is now on a single device that you can take anywhere. it some ways its revolutionary. much like the idea turned the world away from single copies of books, painstakingly scribed and restricted as to who could read, let alone touch.
I accepted the idea that my entire music collection could reside on my iPod, now iPhone and that I don’t need to have stacks of CDs, before that tapes, and before that vinyl. I like the instant-on ability to snag a piece of music playing, and even without comprehending the lyrics have Shazam id the song and a click later buy the track right on my iPhone. Do I miss the record store? No. Through the Internet I can listen to radio stations in Moscow, follow bands I like, discover new bands through the “record store guy” who now runs a blog devoted to his passion. Except now I have access to hundreds of blogs, instead of being stuck geographically to my area and I always have Pandora. I do miss going to Brass City Records, but that field trip is always more than searching out new music.
I don’t know if I’m going to make the leap to the digital book. I read more on screen than I do in printed format. But unlike music, which always required power in order to listen, a book doesn’t. I can take a book to the beach, to the boat and on the plane, trains and automobile trips without worrying how long the power was going to last.
But like the school, I am wondering about how many books I need to keep. And if I’m wondering, I wonder if libraries are wondering. Does the idea of a library have to center on books, or is a library about collecting information. What’s the best way to store and keep that information and make it accessible to the public.
That’s where the decision of Cushing school becomes interesting. They are replacing the books with about $500k of technology. The list is sure to raise a few eyebrows. They want three large flat sceen monitors, to “project data from the Internet” and lap top friendly study carrels, $42,000 and $20,000 are budgeted respectively. They want to spend $50,000 to build a “coffee shop” including the specs for a “$12,000 cappuccino machine.”
Is that a library? I think so. Except for the coffee shop, it essentially describes my library, right down to the 3 flat screen monitors.
But a part of me thinks back to age of Caesar and the loss of the great library of Alexandria. I think there might be a few coffee shops near theoretical historical site.
