Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.
Cushing Academy embraces a digital future
By David Abel, Globe Staff | September 4, 2009
ASHBURNHAM - There are rolling hills and ivy-covered brick buildings.
There are small classrooms, high-tech labs, and well-manicured fields.
Theres even a clock tower with a massive bell that rings for special
events.
Cushing Academy has all the hallmarks of a New England prep school, with
one exception.
This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books,
officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have
decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library.
The academys administrators have decided to discard all their books and
have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the
classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the
humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.
When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before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 isnt Fahrenheit 451 [the 1953 Ray Bradbury
novel in which books are banned]. Were not discouraging students from
reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and
optimize technology.
Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a
learning center, though that is only one of the names in contention
for the new space. In place of the stacks, they are spending $42,000 on
three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and
$20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference
desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a
$12,000 cappuccino machine.
And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information
since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they
have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and
Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which theyre
stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time
with literature.
Those who dont have access to the electronic readers will be expected to
do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers.
Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, were building a
virtual library where students will have access to millions of books,
said Tracy, whose office shelves remain lined with books. We see this as
a model for the 21st-century school.
Not everyone on campus is sold on Tracys vision.
They worry about an environment where students can no longer browse rows
of voluptuous books, replete with glossy photographs, intricate maps, and
pages dog-eared by generations of students. They worry students will be
less likely to focus on long works when their devices are constantly
interrupting them with e-mail and instant messages. They also worry about
a world where sweat-stained literature is deemed as perishable as all the
glib posts on Facebook or Twitter.
Liz Vezina, a librarian at Cushing for 17 years, said she never imagined
working as the director of a library without any 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. Im going to miss them. I love books. Ive grown up with them,
and theres something lost when theyre virtual. Theres a sensual side
to them - the smell, the feel, the physicality of a book is something
really special.
Alexander Coyle, chairman of the history department, is a self-described
gadget freak who enjoys reading on Amazons Kindle, but he has always
seen libraries and their hallowed content as secular cathedrals.
I wouldnt want to ever get rid of any of my books at home, he said.
I like the feel of them too much. A lot us are wondering how this
changes the dignity of the library, and why we cant move to increase
digital resources while keeping the books.
Tracy and other administrators said the books took up too much space and
that there was nowhere else on campus to stock them. So they decided to
give their collection - aside from a few hundred childrens books and
valuable antiquarian works - to local schools and libraries.
We see the gain as greater than the loss, said Gisele Zangari,
chairwoman of the math department, who like other teachers has plans for
all her students to do their class reading on electronic books by next
year. This is the start of a new era.
Cushing is one of the first schools in the country to abandon its books.
Im not aware of any other library that has done this, said Keith
Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association, a
Chicago-based organization that represents the nations libraries.
He said the move raises at least two concerns: Many of the books on
electronic readers and the Internet arent free and it may become more
difficult for students to happen on books with the serendipity made
possible by physical browsing. Theres also the question of the
durability of electronic readers.
Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I dont see
how that need is going to be met, Fiels said. Books are not a waste of
space, and they wont be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand,
survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens,
there will be next to no difference between that and a book.
William Powers, author of a forthcoming book based on a paper he
published at Harvard called Hamlets Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal,
called the changes at Cushing radical and a tremendous loss for
students.
There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only
available from actual books, he said. There is a kind of deep-dive,
meditative reading thats almost impossible to do on a screen. Without
books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that
screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the authors ideas.
Yet students at Cushing say they look forward to the new equipment, and
the brave new world theyre ushering in.
Tia Alliy, a 16-year-old junior, said she visits the library nearly every
day, but only once looked for a book in the stacks. Shes not alone.
School officials said when they checked library records one day last
spring only 48 books had been checked out, and 30 of those were
childrens books.
When you hear the word library, you think of books, Alliy said. But
very few students actually read them. And the more we use e-books, the
fewer books we have to carry around.
Jemmel Billingslea, an 18-year-old senior, thought about the prospect of
a school without books. It didnt bother him.
Its a little strange, he said. But this is the future.
David Abel can be reached at da...@globe.com.
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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