The authorities at Cushing Academy, a New England prep school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts have decided to do away with their traditional library. Meaning, nothing between two covers.
“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’
In place of the books, the school has purchased three large flat-screen televisions, a $12,000 cappuccino machine, and 18 electronic readers. 18 electronic readers for their 445 students.
I kind of have the same reaction as one of the veteran librarians of Cushing Academy, Liz Vezina, who has worked in that library for 17 years and is apparently having a hard time imagining working in a library with no books.
“It makes me sad,’’ said Vezina, who hosts a book club on campus dubbed the Off-line Readers and has made a career of introducing students to books. “I’m going to miss them. I love books. I’ve grown up with them, and there’s something lost when they’re virtual. There’s a sensual side to them – the smell, the feel, the physicality of a book is something really special.’’
William Powers, authot of the paper (soon to be book) “Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal” weighs in on the move calling it a “tremendous loss for students.”
To counter all of this worry that students won’t be able to read the way they used to, peruse the aisles, or serendipitously discover something they weren’t looking for, the article states that “School officials said when they checked library records one day last spring only 48 books had been checked out, and 30 of those were children’s books.”
