Re: If Academic Libraries Remove Computers, Will Anyone Come?

From: Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_nyob>
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:39:55 -0400
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
So what if you take wifi out of the library too?

I don't know why you'd _want_ to take public access worktations OR wifi 
out of the library exactly though.

Peter Schlumpf wrote:
> I don't agree.  I think this push to have lots of computers in libraries is
> a passing phase.  Sure, if one takes computer out of libraries now, the
> numbers will indeed drop by half.  But 5 years from now, I don't see that
> happening.  More and more, people have their own computers.  And with wifi
> and other wireless technology becoming ubiquitous and cheap or free, the
> days of rows and rows of public access desktop computers in carrels is
> numbered.  The end of that couldn't come soon enough as far as I am
> concerned.  Public access computers are a huge resource sink in money and
> staff time to support.
>
> Computers will always have a place in libraries, but in 5 or 10 years they
> fade into the woodwork just like any other technology where they are
> supposed to be.  And then libraries can focus once again on their core
> purpose.
>
> Peter Schlumpf
> www.avantilibrarysystems.com
>
>
> On 4/29/10, B.G. Sloan <bgsloan2_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>   
>> From today's Chronicle "Wired Campus" blog:
>>
>> http://bit.ly/dcnWwW
>>
>> Article quotes an assistant university librarian at the University of
>> California at Santa Barbara as saying: ""If you take the computers out of
>> the commons, I think you'd see our numbers drop by half." By "numbers", he's
>> talking about people visiting the physical library.
>>
>> Provocative, but I don't know if I agree...
>>
>> Bernie Sloan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     
>
>   
Received on Thu Apr 29 2010 - 17:41:17 EDT