As a purist and someone who studied Latin, I object a little bit to calling these study spaces "libraries" if they don't have books (libri). But I agree that digital information should be embraced by college students. I encourage it in my students.
College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age (NY Times)
The trend is being driven, academicians and librarians say, by the dwindling need for undergraduate libraries, many of which were built when leading research libraries were reserved for graduate students and faculty. But those distinctions have largely crumbled, with research libraries throwing open their stacks, leaving undergraduate libraries as increasingly puny adjuncts with duplicate collections and shelves of light reading.
True. There is no need for separate graduate and undergraduate libraries.
"There's a real transition going on," said Sarah Thomas, past president of the Association of Research Libraries and the librarian at the Cornell University Library in Ithaca, N.Y. "This is not to say you don't have paper or books. Of course, they're sacred. But more and more we're delivering material to the user as opposed to the user coming into the library to get it."
I'm in favor of it. E-books on tablet PCs might be the next revolution in the college classroom. And of course if more journal collections can be put on-line and made available at minimal expense, scholars everywhere will rejoice.
Still, don't get rid of the libraries (the ones with books) just yet. I need a place to walk to just to pull a random book off the shelf for enjoyment and enlightenment. So far, the internet does not replicate that fully (especially the walk).
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