As a librarian I am constantly bombarded with the issues surrounding this debate. Many of my peer librarians at other schools are pushing all the gadgets that publish books in digital formats. And although I do see value in such items, condone the use of them and provide such items for students, it may be suprising for you to know that many of our students still enjoy feeling the paper and cuddling up in the corner with a book no matter it’s age or condition. ( I offered the ability to read on the IPad to my book club. I barely had any takers.) I am constantly asking for feedback from students about their experiences with reading on the IPad, ITouch, Kindle, Nook, etc. I am searching for them to substantiate all the dogma and propaganda surrounding the death of the book. I have as of yet to conclude that this generation has completely done away with the paper format. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that books will become extinct as of yet, if ever. And yes I have seen the statistics ( I often wonder who is generating them) and many technological devices that make reading in a digital format possible, portable, easy and all you could want to read at your fingertips. However when I am with other librarians and we are conversing about the needs of our community and library, I find that not always but usually I am one stating how our students still enjoy the book in its paper format. Thacher has recently been referred to as “Frontier Schooling” and I’d like to believe that in some way we still maintain a little piece of a “Frontier Library.”
