Thursday, May 20, 2010

Stanford University's Bookless Library


It's coming. The San Jose Mercury News discusses what it all means in regards to what a library is and what it's there to do.

From the piece...

Science and engineering students agree, saying there is little nostalgia for paper.

"As far as research articles go, physics publication is already essentially entirely online," said physics graduate student Daniel Weissman. "And old journal editions from before the Internet era have largely been digitized, so you can get those articles online too. So that just leaves reference books — and yeah, you're starting to see more and more of those in online versions, too."

But the transition is tougher for Physics librarian Stella Ota, who is responsible for the fate of thousands of old books as she prepares for the June 9 closure.

"It is challenging — I'll look at a book and say, 'This is important work, but not currently used,' " she said.

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