HSU IT Department

AGH AGH AGH. As a bibliophile, yes, I'm biased. I love books. But I love new technology, too. And I don't see how anyone (i.e. Cushing moron) can just say "Okay everyone, we've decided this format is obsolete, time to switch READY GO" and not be universally guffawed at by colleagues.

But my biggest problem with this is the blithe assumption that all students have devices that can access e-texts. In my library, the ebooks must be accessed using a college ID or a campus computer. So if a student doesn't have the funds for internet or a computer or an e-reader, are they just out of luck if libraries go all-digital? (Granted, I could see this becoming less of a problem. Since text books are so expensive, students might decide it's cheaper to invest in a laptop/e-reader and use e-textbooks than shell out for something they'll sell back in four months. BUT THEN AGAIN: most of our institutional ebooks only allow five simultaneous users! The argument could go back and forth forever!)

We do have kindles/e-readers for circulation at our library. There's currently a six-to-twelve month waiting list, I believe.

(Hey, what if there's an internet or website outage? No need to call IT for that physical book... Okay, okay. /luddite)