Kindles and laptops replace books at this school library
By Marjorie Kehe | 10.27.09
Somebody had to go first. In this case, it was Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass. Library observers say it might be the first school – public or private – to trade its paper-and-ink library collection for electronic devices.
An article in USA Today describes the school’s decision to jettison most of the 20,000 paper-and-ink books in its library collection (a collection, the school notes, that was barely used – about 0.15% of the books circulated on a typical day) in favor of e-books. The library itself now sports three big-screen TVs and a $12,000 espresso machine.
If students are doing research, they use a laptop or library PC to access one of the 13 databases to which the school subscribes. If they’re looking for a specific book, a librarian will help them download it onto one of the library’s 65 circulating Kindle e-readers.
Brand-new Kindles are pricey (they can run from from $200 to $500), but Tom Corbett, the school’s director of Media and Academic Technology, points out that he often pays as little as $5 to buy an e-book – much less than the price of the hardback books for which he often paid as much as $30.
To say the least, reactions to the new library have been mixed. There are those that praise the school – and James Tracy, its headmaster – for a forward-thinking action more likely to engage today’s kids in learning.
But there are others who have compared Tracy to everything from a bookburner to Hitler.
According to the USA Today piece, most of the students “love the new library.” But the piece closes with the comments of a few skeptics. The best comes from Gaby Skok, an 18-year-old senior at Cushing Academy who is horrified that her formerly quiet library is now “some hip, trendy place.”
Skok told USA Today that she “simply can’t believe that Tracy has let flickering TV monitors, à la George Orwell’s ‘1984,’ invade the library.”
“Dr. Tracy, I love him, I respect him,” she told the paper. “But has he read a dystopian novel?”
Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor’s book editor. You can follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/MarjorieKehe.
Comments
3. Gwazdos | 10.27.09
Library people in my community want a newer building with a cost of $8.9 million to place books on shelves and after a while sell the books (which quickly contain absolute information) that cost $25.00 for $1.00 at a book sale. Then start the process all over again to house obsolete books. Otherwise I can go on the Internet and find all the information one needs and no library card and cost to the community. In other words Library’s as new set up are an obsolete function and cost to a community. There time has passed!
4. jessamyn | 10.27.09
Who cares about the espresso machine? At least they OWN it.
Isn’t the more interesting question here what happens when a library goes from buying books to basically renting them and what that does to their business model? Not to mention the incredibly small fraction of books that are available on the Kindle.
I guess my main question is “What happens when this model doesn’t work?” like when you need a book that is not available digitally? Or when all the students need books at once? Am I the only librarian who thinks that 13 databases is painfully small?
What I’d really like though, is to know what the school’s librarians think. Rumor mills have indicated they’re not pleased. Where is their voice?
5. Elizabeth | 10.27.09
The Kindle has only been around since 2007. It seems a bit fanatical to jump in with all four paws yet. I suppose they have an arrangement to repair the units and/or charge the users for espresso spills inside the keyboards. TVs? Really? Let me guess, with the football game blaring out the scores - please! Let the students stream that from their laptops. I thought the library was about reading. It is nice to expose the students to the technology.
6. Diane | 10.27.09
My library in New Jersey has been lending Kindles for 2 years and although they’re incredibly popular and I support their use, I sincerely doubt that they will be replacing paper any time soon. Kids need to be exposed to the technology because THIS IS THE FUTURE. I regret that script will soon not be taught in schools, but what does it serve, in the long run?
And to Gwazdos: your grammar speaks volumes about all the time you’ve spent in libraries over the years. Rather to keep your comments to yourself and be thought an idiot than to write your comments and remove all doubt.
7. maureen | 10.28.09
I love reading on my laptop, but I’d never let my child read on it. She might drop it, overturn her juice on it, sat on it, let it slip in the bath water or the untimate…vomit all over it. All these things children do quite regulary with books and somehow the books mostly survive. Can we say the same thing about a kindle or a laptop?
Maureen. http://www.thepizzagang.com
8. ranx | 10.28.09
Does Kindle own proprietary software?
Do book publishers have to rent, buy, or pay royalties to the owner of this software?
Will the owners of the software have the ability to make decisions about who does or does not get published, once this software has completely replaced old-fashioned books?
Just imagine how things would be today if Gutenberg had claimed a right to collect royalties.
9. Rob | 10.28.09
Don’t you love it when illiterates write things such as (of libraries) “There [sic] time has passed”? The comment is itself a comment undercutting the point the writer attempts to make. Sadly, the writer never realizes how ignorant he or she is.
10. Pgh Library | 10.28.09
Gwazdos does not realize that not all information is available online and that to access reputable databases, one does need either an expensive subscription or a public or university library card. Libraries are not obsolete, rather inept technology worshipers are proclaiming that everything is available through technology. Would someone say that the Rosetta stone should be discarded as it is old. Should old newspapers be thrown out? The people who should be making these decisions should be those who are in the position to judge the quality of the information not just its lack of technology. Yes, the format of information is changing but it has not made the total transformation yet. In addition as one person alluded to is that as more information is being digitized by propriety companies we may actually lose free access not gain it. Libraries have ensured that all people have access to materials not just those who have the money for the new technologies. There will be an increase in the digital divide.
11. Naomi Smith | 10.30.09
It is fantastic that technology helps support the availability of knowledge, whether it is in finding physical books or with new e-books. One new option that my facility is considering are laptop self-checkout stations from http://www.laptopsanytime.com that enable self-service access to computers which double as electronic book readers.
12. Z | 10.30.09
So, 5 dollars an e-book. How many licenses/copies/seats are you allowed to circulate?
How many kindles are they providing for students? How many restricted to in-house use in the library?
*sigh*
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1. Alida Antonia Cornelius | 10.27.09
With new research coming out about cell phones and tumors, I am surprised that more people are not concerned about more electric magnetic fields with MORE devices such as the Kindle. I mean, women will prop these on their laps…I wouldn’t add these to the electromagnetic exposure kids get today.
The UK recommends that kids under 13 don’t use cell phones to limit their exposure.
It’s time for more research than is currently being done of EMF’s and their possible link to cancers and tumors before it’s too late.
It’s always about money, but not about the health of the public.