Cushing Academy Library near Boston Embraces Digital Future, Discards Entire Book Collection, Invests in E-books and Coffee

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Libraries across America and all around the world are finding ways to develop along with the ever-changing digital landscape. Yet, while some begin online book lending and others get into social networking applications like Twitter and Facebook, the Fisher-Watkins Library of Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts is taking things a step further. Here are the basics of what their highly controversial “e-library” plan hopes to accomplish:

• No more physical books
  The collection of over 20,000 books was sold in exchange for 18 electronic Amazon and Sony e-reader devices, which will be stocked with “millions” of books (not all of which are free to the students, by the way). These are for, as The Boston Globe put it, “students looking to spend more time with literature.”

  The folks at Cushing believe this is the future of all libraries. If they’re right, they’ll be remembered as one of the first to have taken those steps. However, American Library Association executive director Keith Michael Fiels told The Boston Globe that he sees disadvantages concerning the ease of discovering new books/information, as well as the durability of the reader devices, themselves.

• 3 large flat-screen TVs, “Portals of Civilization”
  As part of their effort to have the e-library function more as a “learning center,” they’ve invested thousands of dollars in high-quality televisions that will feed in data from the Internet. No word yet on what that data will consist of.

  These will work hand-in-hand with another new feature to be found in their facilities, known as the “Portals of Civilization.” The Cushing Academy press release states that these new computer terminals will “give ready access to everything humans have achieved, from every civilization, across an ever-expanding universe of culture.”

  While some think this is just a cry for publicity, others have noted that statistics show fewer students are checking out books, anyway.

• Coffee shop
  Say goodbye to the reference desk. To replace the element of the library that used to help students locate books, information, and resources, the library directors are building a coffee shop, complete with a $12,000 cappuccino machine. It’s not so much the coffee that is so radical here, but the loss of the obligatory reference desk that may take some getting used to. Nevertheless, students told the Boston Globe that they welcome the changes and new technology.

James Tracy, Cushing’s headmaster, told The Boston Globe that he doesn’t want people to think about this as Fahrenheit 451. Yes, they are discarding books in favor of electronic content. However, no one can say for sure that these changes will necessarily discourage reading. What do you think? Leave a comment here, shoot us a message on Twitter @AtYourLibrary or leave a message on our Facebook Wall. We’d love to hear what you think, and continue this conversation.