I believe that all librarians learned an important lesson from Cushing Academy's elimination of books in print. Cushing Academy is a coeducational college preparatory boarding school in Ashburnham, MA. In 2009, the head of school at Cushing Academy announced that the school’s library would remove all its printed materials and become an all-digital library ‘for the 21st century.’ In 2014, Mark Melchior was hired (under new leadership) and asked to rebalance the library’s offerings and restore print resources.
Many librarians and IT staff from peer institutions have visited the Cushing library to observe the results of the digital library experiment and Mark Melchoir wrote a great article for MSLA entitled, “Isn't that the library that did away with books?”
At Medfield High School, I have also found that certain books are preferred in print format such as graphic novels. The bottom line is that as librarians, we strive to have a balanced collection to meet the needs of all students and faculty.
Many librarians and IT staff from peer institutions have visited the Cushing library to observe the results of the digital library experiment and Mark Melchoir wrote a great article for MSLA entitled, “Isn't that the library that did away with books?”
At Medfield High School, I have also found that certain books are preferred in print format such as graphic novels. The bottom line is that as librarians, we strive to have a balanced collection to meet the needs of all students and faculty.