So the brand-new Florida Polytechnic University has a library, but the library doesn't have any shelves or books. Instead, the school gives its students access to some 135,000 e-books, and has an arrangement with other libraries for interlibrary loans of the old-fashioned models. It's also set up an acquisition budget so that if a book the school doesn't have is requested more than twice, that e-title can be bought automatically. The "library" is a 60,000 square foot building with computer terminals and places to sit and read.
In other words, Florida Polytechnic University is the home of the world's biggest Starbucks.
2 comments:
These kinds of stories make me a little sad. I get that e-books are supposed to be the wave of the future, but what about technical glitches? Outages? One of the classes I teach uses a 'support' website where everything that is an extension of the textbook is housed, and several times when I've tried to access it, it's been down for maintenance.
I don't know. Maybe I'm a Luddite but I'm much more likely to read an ink and paper book or journal than electrons on a screen, especially in my "free" time.
Both glitches and some things I've read that show e-reading promotes less retention make me wonder if this is a good idea. The slight saving grace is that students can print out the material, so they do have the option of creating a document they can annotate for study purposes.
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