My gut response to the issue bookless libraries and the state of the contemporary undergraduate student is not to dignify it with one. My second inclination is to mumble the words “Andy Warhol” and chuckle and mumble a few more things that would misappropriate post-modernism. Third times a charm: I recently was given the opportunity to hear the provosts of NCCU, Duke, NCSU and UNC-CH speak about the current challenges in higher education. Provost Nielson (NCSU) made a comment about the need to address the public perception of higher education in our state. I think the issue you raise, Dave, falls into this category. If students today really do not want to read books, this is not a problem for libraries alone, but a broader issue for higher education in general.

However, notice that the article doesn’t have a quote from a single student saying, “I don’t want books anymore.” Practicing what I preach (quite literally: I told students to do this just 2 hours ago), I feel obligated to analyze this article. This is an outside perspective on libraries. We have here a company that works within the book industry (http://bookstandard.com/bookstandard/about_us/index.jsp) and I feel that I can see a vested interest bleeding through the lines in the article. If you will allow me to be moderately dismissive, I would say that this is a one-sided article that misunderstands the Information Commons movement in libraries. Personally, I am not interested in either of the bandwagons racing in opposite directions.

Yes, students will have to face the demands of their schools and that means reading a book (or at least putting on the airs, as I am sure happens too often).

Dave, I assume that you are talking about the “practice what I preach statement.” I meant that I had just given an instruction session in which I told students to analyze the information they find and ask themselves who is writing the article and who is the intended audience.

***I don’t think there’s been a time in history when 18 year olds have had as much power to tell us how to run our universities, libraries, book stores. Do we simply have to capitulate to their demands – and if so, why? Shouldn’t they have to meet the demands of their schools?****

Although I graduated with a BA/MA in Anthropology in 2004, I’m not 18 yrs old, I’m 39. My MA treatise research was about 60% electronic [2001-2004]. I accessed Montclair State Univ. online holdings from my laptop at home and elsewhere, and supplemented it with peer-reviewed, high-quality info available freely on the web. My advisor, encased in his 25 yr+ tenure was aghast! My finished treatise was delivered in both print and electronic formats [via a CD pocket inside the back cover], a first for the Humanities dept.

I returned to university in 1993, attending part time. I’d previously completed an unrelated degree from 1984-1989. Although the online facilities for research remained very similar to the 1980s when I first returned, I quickly realized information access would shortly undergo a paradigm shift, and for the better. By 1998 the convergence of cheap computers, CDs, advanced software, and the internet set the stage for the bookless library. Today its becoming a reality.

Its not about “18 yr olds”, coffee shops, or comfy couches. Its about unchaining the data from its package, convergence, convenience, and economics. A bound book, like a CD or cassette tape, is a ‘vehicle’ only. Music access has undergone a profound realignment the past 10 yrs. I used to lug around 16 CDs and a player for minimal entertainment value; I used to have to purchase an entire $18.99 CD for one good song, now I carry 1500+ mp3s on my 5 oz iPod, and spend $1.00 for the song I want. My CD case is in the garbage, my CD player retired. The transformation that music experienced the past 10 yrs, text-based info is starting to go thru now.

University libraries are the perfect starting point for such a shift. Text available thru online delivery is not only searchable [XML tags and metadata], but is dynamically linkable, which is light-years out from the way book-based information was accessed 10-15 yrs ago. Dynamic linking enables research depth 1000% more useful, info-rich, and exposure heavy than anything in print.

My treatise greatly benefitted from the depth and breadth of info only available online, my lit review was more complete, and completed faster than I ever could have accomplished via traditional means. Like the vinyl record, horse&carriage, and other technology standards before it, books are being replaced with better technology that can’t be ignored.

The 18 yr olds at your library today will one day be deciding your library’s budgets and future. But this tech advance isn’t only pushed by them, at 39 I am also a complete advocate, having experienced much benefit from using the newer technology myself. Instead of crying over the demise of bound books, perhaps you and your colleagues should spend some time investigating ways to make the future online library experience even better than it is now.

By the way, during my studies at MSU, I have also been employed at an STM book/journal publisher for 12 yrs, and have watched these changes take place thru their perspective too. So I am not some luddite just posting for the hell of it. I’ve been watching the changes taking place, and experiencing them, and know the future will be better. There will be no going back.