School Library Does Away With Books

by Tom Henderson (Subscribe to Tom Henderson's posts) Sep 17th 2009 5:12AM

Categories: In The News, Weird But True, Education

Something you won't see anymore at a New England prep school: library books. Credit: Getty Images

The last thing a school library needs these days is books, the headmaster of a New England prep school told the Boston Globe.

What it really needs is a good cappuccino machine.

James Tracy, headmaster of the Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Conn., told the Globe that ink on paper is so 20th century. So his school library is doing away with it -- and its 20,000 books.

"When I look at books, I see an outdated technology like scrolls before books,' Tracy told the (pardon the expression) paper.

He swears this isn't a school production of "Fahrenheit 451," Ray Bradbury's cautionary tale about books being burned in an anti-intellectual hysteria.

"We're not discouraging students from reading," he told the paper. "We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology."

Administrators at the 144-year-old prep school 90 minutes west of Boston have already given away many of the library's previous collection of classics, poetry and reference material. They are choosing instead to spend $500,000 on a digital "learning center" that will include flat-screen TVs for cruising the Internet as well as cubbies designed for laptops and a coffee shop with a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

The TV sets alone will cost $42,000, according to the Globe.

Liz Vezina, Cushing's school librarian for the past 17 years, told the Globe she will miss the books.

"I love books," she said. "I grew up with them, and there's something lost when they're virtual. There's a sensual side to them -- the smell, feel. The physicality of a book is something really special."

William Powers, the author of the upcoming book "Hamlet's Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal," told the Globe the changes at Cushing are as depressing as they are radical.

"There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books," he told the paper.

"There is a kind deep-dive, meditative reading that's almost impossible to do on the screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable rather than be by themselves with the author's ideas."

Source

Comments (45)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

brooke 9-17-2009 @ 7:29AM

Wow, for a minute there I thought it was April Fool's Day. This story made me sad, and very angry. It's already becoming harder and harder to get children to pick up a book and read these days. Is more access to computers what they really need? If my child were in this school, I would remove her immediately, and enroll her in a school that teaches their students to love books. The librarian, Ms. Vezina is correct when she states that "The physicality of a book is something really special."

Pat 9-18-2009 @ 8:51AM

Growing up in New England winter was the time you curled up with a book and the read everything you put on hold during the 3 other seasons.

Billy 9-18-2009 @ 8:40AM

My wife is an avid reader and she loves her sony e-book. We do not have tons of old $20 books piling up around the house and they are cheaper to buy. Books are not gone they are just in a different format. My wife is reading more since she got her e-book than she was before. Kindles from amazon also work very well. No one can dispute the importance of books we are just learning to get them in another form. Think of the trees that will be saved.

cml3720 9-17-2009 @ 8:04AM

This is simply depressing. There is nothing better than curling up with a good book --- not a good electronic gadget.

pochantis 9-18-2009 @ 8:40AM

Try the Kindle 2..... It's so much better than an actual book........ Its 10,000 actual books all in day planner sized, lighted book that stays charged for days. Why waste paper. No late fees, no waiting, and no lost books. You can plug it in and download. No mass copying for teachers.
Honestly schools should switch strictly to textbook on kindle. My 6th grade son has been carrying 32lbs of books in his backsac everyday.
Cost effective, my college aged daughter has 1200.00 worth of textbooks. Why? All of them should and could be offered at a fraction of the cost on Kindle.

You still have a motorola flip and a desktop pc don't you?

Mildred 9-17-2009 @ 9:46AM

I find it depressing that an academic institution feels that books have no value

BTW, Cushing is in Massachusetts

Heather 9-17-2009 @ 10:59AM

Everyone in my family reads. My son gets 2 stories before bed, my daughter and I read before bed. When my Aunt passed away somone at her funeral said "you know you are in a L*** household because there are books everywhere. " Chirstmas and birthdays are not the same without the gift of a book, or at least a giftcard to a bookstore. I have books that belonged to my great grandfather.

My cousins wife was actually proud she was able to break her husband of the habit of reading and collecting books. When she said that I was horrified.

I would be very angry and pull my child out of a school that didn't have books. These parents are paying for this education on top of it. Is the school going to be paying for glasses for all these kids when they need them after staring at screens all day?

Corinne 9-19-2009 @ 4:44PM

You could have read books off the walls of caves, but fortunately we are beyond that. To cuddlw with a child while sharing a book is irreplaceable. There is no humanity reading a book on a computer..or frankly, even a kindle. You have lost the interaction with the page. How sorry I am for all of you who will never know the pleasure of turning the pages of a book.

Debra 9-17-2009 @ 1:20PM

Wonderful...the students will only have to read while in school! Heaven forbid that they should check out books which are portable. I can hear the excuses now..."I couldn't do my report because there were too many other kids using the equipment." "I was home sick and couldn't read there." Nothing teaches the love of reading like a book in your hands that was put there by someone who cares about you. This school apparently just cares to spend money and get publicity, while caring little about true learning.

LillieFaerie 9-18-2009 @ 6:53AM

I bet if they research it, the guy has stock in Kindle

Heather E 9-17-2009 @ 6:12PM

This is a depressing, infuriating article. No one hears the phrase "I curled up with a good laptop last night". Sounds to me like they are trying to make the kids ready to sit in a cubical for the rest of their lives. What happened to going outside and reading under a tree??? Can't do that when you have to bring your tv with you.

pochantis 9-18-2009 @ 8:50AM

You don't need a laptop to have a kindle. Books are great we have thousands but, we also have and use much more our kindles. Do you remember encyclopdeias they used to come out every so often. When have my students used one? Never. The internet makes it so you don't have to build a library in your home to have the same more updated, more readily available information.
And if you put your kindle in a ziploc, you can still read it safely while soaking in the tub.

thedarkestone767 9-18-2009 @ 6:21AM

Wow. I'm all for technology and cappuccino machines but this is ridiculous! Not to mention depressing. Books are such a treasure and for a school to want to replace them with t.v.'s and cappuccino machines? Good grief! I would not let my child attend that school at all.

lorenzo 9-18-2009 @ 6:18AM

Very,very disturbing. A book breeds imagination and creativity, to lose that is indeed a loss to civilization. The virtual stuff is ok, but not the same.

Fred 9-18-2009 @ 6:26AM

Unbelieveable!!! The best thing this so called "prep school" could do is rid itself of the headmaster, not the library. One of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. So now they will have an entertainment center that might be found at an amusement park rather than a library. No wonder the U.S. kids can't compete with Asians, etc, the schools they attend aren't teaching.

LillieFaerie 9-18-2009 @ 6:53AM

Sooooo when there is no electricity, or a huge virus in the systems that is okay? Sooooo, when a student needs to check 10 references sans flipping back and forth repeatedly while doing papers, that is okay? There have been many times when I've used 10 books in front of me for research and that is difficult to do without printing out the pages. Computer errors and erroneous data is out there. Not 10 years ago computer sources were considered 'unreliable sources' and students were not allowed to rely on them. Many journals and the like ya can't access without paying to use them whereas a good ole medical library is free for the leafing through. This limits students by the amount of money they have to spend. Even webster.com or britanica.com costs annually. Not every student is privy to the money to do this--

I say get rid of the Librarian and the cappuccino machine. Ancient texts are preserved on their original forms. A cap machine can be had for under a hundred or for a few grand, certainly far less than the value of 20000 books. The guy, in my opinion, is short sighted. One small thing, how many kids have migraines at that school? I know I cannot look at a computer screen during one, but can look at a book.

Bill 9-18-2009 @ 7:36AM

Hi Lillie..Not only should they get rid of gre librarian and the cappuchino machine but the Board of Trustees who approved this

golly 9-18-2009 @ 3:02PM

Don't knock the librarian. It wasn't her decision.

BTW - where did everyone read about this story? In a newspaper in their hands or on line??????

LillieFaerie 9-18-2009 @ 6:52AM

I have a nice sized tub that I soak and read in to help some physical ails. My grandchildren saw me and either join in with their books or take their own bath and read,,,I do not see that happening with any electronic divice. Reading and relaxing in a nice herbal bath is divine.

David 9-18-2009 @ 6:59AM

The barbarians have breached the gates.

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