We've been hearing about it for years, but the bookless library has finally arrived, making a beachhead on college campuses. At Drexel University's new Library Learning Terrace, which opened just last month, there is nary a bound volume, just rows of computers and plenty of seating offering access to the Philadelphia university's 170 million electronic items.
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The upcoming transformation of the New York Public Library's main branch "anticipates the parallel and integrated worlds of electronic digital systems and traditional books" as they complement each other in flexible space that can endure changes, says architect Norman Foster. And although he celebrates the analog world of printed books in his design of the brain-shaped library at Berlin's Free University, he places the stacks in the center of the curved, modern building with digital technology around them, allowing room to adapt "for life beyond the book."
"Is a Bookless Library Still a Library?" by Tim Newcomb
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