I'm on my fifth year of college (not all of it has been full time, I've transferred schools, taken semesters off, etc) yet I've never checked out a book from any of the three libraries I've had access to. This isn't a result of lack of availability; my school has a 7 story library. It's not a result of laziness, either. I have a good GPA, and work hard.

The fact is, library books just aren't needed. Loving books for the nostalgia factor, tactile feel, and all that kind of stuff is fine for personal use, but that shouldn't factor into the decision making process of a school. A library is supposed to be about learning and education, and every one I've been in has been used as little more than a place to sit and type on a laptop. Or take a nap. Or get a coffee. As I mentioned earlier, my school has a seven story library. It's enormous, and yet I always have a hard time finding a place to sit. Why? Because it's jam packed full of books no one ever needs.

Given the above, I definitely think it's a good idea to re-task the space used by all those books to something better suited to educate. The problem is. . .I'm not really sure what IS better suited. The solutions this school proposed in that article don't sound particularly helpful. 3 tvs for "projection of internet content" and 18 e-readers? Uh, whoo. Books aren't great, but they're more useful than that.

I definitely think school libraries could do better than to fill themselves with expensive books, but I'm not really sure what they should do with themselves.