Empty Shelves Or Empty Heads?

     

      On the cutting edge of what a Star Trek vision of the future holds for libraries, Cushing Academy has made the decision to forego all it’s physical library books in favour of an entirely digital collection. That’s more than 20, 000 books going bye-bye to be replaced with 18 electronic readers such as the Amazon “Kindle” and several large flat -screen TV’s. Somehow this seems a little premature yet as lo-fi books are  operationally functional with minimal requirements other than literacy on the part of the patron. Anything utilizing technology requires a substantial support system to undergird  it or the whole structure comes tumbling down. The IT guys & gals are going to be holding up the whole world if they’re not doing so already.  I expect this will have an interesting learing curve and I’ll be surprised if it’s a painless transition. The question is, are they boldly going where no one has gone before or fools rushing in where angels fear to tread?http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/090409_cushing_library/