Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.

Boston.com ^ | September 4, 2009 | David Abel

[Wardenclyffe]

ASHBURNHAM - There are rolling hills and ivy-covered brick buildings. There are small classrooms, high-tech labs, and well-manicured fields. There’s 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 academy’s 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.

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.

[paulycy]

"75 students need to read 'A Tale of Two Cities?'
We're going to need a lot more big screen TVs..."

[Texas Fossil]

SO,

There are almost 30,000 volumes on http://www.gutenberg.org.

Free download, some in .txt and some in HTML. The HTML versions have illustrations and are a pleasure to read.

Some of the books have been out-of-print so long you simply cannot find a copy.

If you like classic literature this is a good site.

[Wardenclyffe]

Thanks for the link. I actually have gone on the site many times and it's great. I guess my point was that I love the physical aspect of books. The way they feel, smell, etc. Modern technology is great for digitizing everything and therefore making it available to the masses at little or no cost.

But, just like digital signal processors in music allowing musicians to access hundreds of samples of guitar amps, for example, there is no replacing the harmonics of an old tube amp.

I'll take an old Fender Twin Reverb amp over a digital signal processor any day.

[paulycy]

I'll take an old Fender Twin Reverb amp over a digital signal processor any day.

Amen.

And double for orchestral instruments.