WOW, all I can say is that it's a shame... there is nothing like books when it comes to learning; it's not easy to highlight, markup and take notes on a public computer or a loaned out laptop.
For shame, UT - a bad start onto a dangerous slippery slope.
I agree completely. What I can't understand is why these facilities have to come at the expense of printed books. You can have all of the computers, lounges, etc. without throwing out the books which remain one of the best methods for intense focused study. How long can you study on your wirelessly enabled computer without checking to see if there's been an update at/.?
You can have all of the computers, lounges, etc. without throwing out the books which remain one of the best methods for intense focused study.
True, for some reason I absoloutely hate to read long texts on a computer screen. It's fine for short PDF files but as soon as I am dealing with a 50+ pages I like having an oldfashioned paper book in my hands rather than sitting in front of a desktop computer or even a laptop which at least is protable. Even computer printouts are inferior to a book since the book will usually be more compact.
For me, it's more about how to access what I want to read.
I think the UI would be inferior mainly because flipping through pages with my fingers will always be more convenient than a search box (that needs either a stylus or keyboard to work) or previous/next buttons that go one page at a time.
A bookmarks UI will either need screen space or an extra step to access, as opposed to just grabbing and flipping the pages. Have you ever held your fingers between pages at a few spots in a book and flipped back and forth?
How about comparing/referenceing multiple pages from the same or multiple books?
Also, it's always nice to have a feel for where you are in a book, and I don't think a picture or number can convey that as well as physical pages.
Sure, it would be nice to have a thin letter sized tablet to carry on the subway for reading, and I think it would certainly add some useful features (automatic updating of news, searching and highlighting, etc), but I can think of many situations where I would be more comfortable with real books.
You prefer to read from a book because it's a superior technology. The book's resolution is far higher than the screen, as books are typically printed at a resolution of 1500dpi or better, compared to around 100dpi for most modern monitors. The book's display is an absorptive technology, which is easier on your eyes than the projective nature of the monitor. You also can't beat the book's infinite "battery life," compared to a few hours for notebook computers.
While technologies like digital ink, which is an absorptive display that doesn't consume power unless you're changing the text, may offer a superior technology to books in the future, the book is a much better technology than current computers for reading large amounts of text.
The University of Texas "Undergraduate Library" has an interesting history - basically, the library was developed to allow undergraduates to browse stacks - before then, only graduates could do so - undergraduates had to use the card catalog to find exactly the book they wanted and give it to the librarian.
This was in the 1950s-1960s.
But since then, almost every library is open to every student - making an "undergraduate library" a bit of a redundancy. Already, the "Undergraduate Library" was not the main library on campus - that honor went to the Perry-Castaneda Library a blocks south. (It's a Biiiig campus)
That's where all 90,000 books will go.
It's actually a better deal - instead of looking in the directory at the PCL and finding out that the book you want is at the OTHER library (something that's happened quite a bit to me!) the books will be in one place. Already the "Undergraduate Library" - or as it's now known, the Flawn Academic Center, was used primarily as study-group area (because it had a big lobby) the housing of the campus computer store, and one of the largest computer labs on campus.
So, to recap: No books will be thrown out, they'll be put where they ought to be - with the other books, in the other, main library on campus. This is a win-win.
Seriously; UT literally has dozens of libraries that aren't going anywhere. The library in question has always been more of a study and group-work meeting place than a library for years now; its right next to the Student Union, the West Mall. Since neither of those places is getting any bigger, and the student population gets larger and more decentralized, having meeting places like these are more and more important.
Even in 1996, the first floor was magazines and study area, the second floor meeting rooms and computer lab, the top floor was an art gallery and ball room! Not much room for books in the first place.
I hear you, but on the other hand do we expect these facilities to stay the same forever? I wouldn't really make sense for the technology of information storage and distribution to just end with the building-full-of-books library.
These libraries are part of an evolution - think back to card catalogues, shelves full of scrolls perhaps before that - written language itself is not so old in the scope of human history... is the paper book or journal really the ultimate solution in this evolution?
For scientific research I find the online resources to be a tremendous improvement. If I read a paper and want to find referenced article I can click a link and have it immediately - rather than climbing three floors in the stacks. I can go through a lot more information, sorting and sifting through the relevant items much more effectively online compared with doing it on foot in the library... I still do love the smell of all those books though...
They are already way ahead of you. Check out http://www.thomsonisi.com/ [thomsonisi.com], an index of most of the the major peer reviewed journals (or at least those that provide english abstracts). You can use it as a keyword index, but the real kicker is being able to find every paper that cited a given paper. It sure beats flipping through its predecessor, the old Science Citation Index.
To get access to it you'll have to have an account at an academic library though.
Guess I'll have to take a trip back to the old alma mater some day to take a look at this thing. Back when I was there, Flawn Academic Center was still called the "Undergraduate Library", though it was already undergoing the early stages of this transition. The UGL (nicknamed the "UGLy") was the least user-friendly of the libraries on campus, and people tended to hang and study in the larger and more cozy PCL. The FAC was then transitioning to more computer labs and such.
Agreed. The only times I went into the UGL at UT were to give blood and to vote. I suppose there were books in there somewhere, but if you were actually researching something, you had to go to the PCL or one of the departmental libraries. This is a logical development and is not taking books away from the students in any way. If anything, it is more convenient for the students, because they are more likely to find everything they want in the same library instead of having to trapse across campus -- the two librarys are six or seven blocks apart, if I remember correctly.
I am a university researcher, and I do use Google Scholar and Citeseer almost exclusively. The university is subscribed to almost everything out there, and I only rarely need something that is not available through the web. It depends on the field you are in, of course; I rarely need something more than 10 years old.
...but sometimes you find that the original source for some material is in a text published thirty (or sixty, or even more) years ago that simply cannot be found online. While you may be able to hit the online journals for current research, there's no substitute for citing the fundamentals, and you can't honestly cite a work without even taking a moment to skim through it first.
So, until a university scans all of its book collection for online perusal, this is a step in the wrong direction.
Even though the undergraduate library apparently had 90,000 volumes there, NO ONE I KNOW used it as an actual-book library. Practically all the useful real books are at the main campus library (Perry-Castaneda), not the UGL. First floor of the UGL had magazines. Second floor had a pretty large and useful computer lab. Third floor had mostly media for checkout (CDs, DVDs, etc.). There were some shelves of books there, but very, VERY rarely did I ever need one of them. The fourth floor was cordoned off and had some art pieces in storage that would go to the Ransom Center elsewhere on campus.
It makes a lot of sense to move those few volumes that were actually at the UGL to the other libraries. This creates a lot more room at the UGL/FAC for study areas, which were pretty lacking.
So, while the blaring headlines make it sound like a big deal, from the point-of-view of a UT student (going on five years now and counting, woo hoo), this isn't that big of a deal.
What they are talking about is not removing the books from the UT library system. What they are talking about is, basically, converting a single undergraduate library into a student center, because undergrad libraries are no longer necesary in most places.
See, back in the Bad Old Days, undergrads were sort of like roaches. You wanted them out of sight, and you certainly didn't want them anywhere important. So they weren't permitted in the stacks at university libraries. Instead, you filled out a form and gave it to a librarian, and they brought you the book you requested. Fill out the form wrong and get the wrong book? Fill out another form. All this to prevent those scalliwag undergrads from mussing the stacks.
In the 50's, Harvard had what was (at the time) a revolutionary idea: don't just keep undergrads out of the stacks- quarantine them! They built Lamont library, the nations first undergraduate library. The shelves were filled with the sort of intro-level books on topics that undergrads were likely to research for their classes. There was a recreational reading collection, and rooms for group study. The undergrads got to browse the books and had a place to gather. The grad school and departmental libraries didn't have to interact with undergrads. Everyone was happy.
Since those heady days, things have changed a bit. Many university systems have replaced cantankerous old librarians and card catalogues with computer-indexed search systems, and English majors employed part-time to damage the bar code scanner. Many schools have open stacks now, and have opened all their libraries to undergraduates. Furthermore, the growth of collections means that more and more a dedicated undergraduate library can't house all the books that an undergrad might need. Now you have your collection divided between the grab-bag of books in the undergrad collection, the in-depth books in the departmental or grad school collection, and the overflow books available by request from the warehouse featured in "Raiders of the Lost Arc".
In such a situation, some schools (apparently such as UT) have found that the undergrad library is more of a bother than a help as a library. Undergrads still go there to study, but increasingly the books that they want are in other parts of the library system; for books that might be useful to both undergraduates and grad students and faculty, you either have to duplicate efforts or force grads and faculty to wander over to the undergrad library. So there's a logical solution: convert the undergrad library to what it really is- a student center for undergrads, oriented somewhat around studying and writing papers- and move the books back into the general library system, which everyone is already using anyway.
This has little or nothing to do with "taking the books out of libraries" as near as I can tell. UT will still have its giant collection of real books that you can check out and read when the power goes out, or on a plane for 12 hours, or in the bathroom without your eyes bleeding and falling out of your head. They will continue to buy new books as they are published, and maintain the old collection. No need to push the bibliophile panic button just yet.
As a student that is attending the University of Texas, I have to clarify that the books in the Undergraduate Library (UGL) are not being "replaced" , they are being moved to the other libraries on campus, which contain most of the books already. The Undergrad library in the past has been more of a place where students went to study, used computers in the computer lab, and read periodicals.
Moving the books to other libraries and dedicating the space to student gatherings/ studies is not that bad of a thing. Considering that there seems to be a need of group study areas, this might help with that.
We already have computer labs, laptops for check out, and wifi in there. So really, the main addition are the colorful chairs.
I'm a big fan of dead trees. Huge. I've ranted about how great the interface is for years, but this is one instance where it kinda makes sense.
I would never buy an encylopedia now that I've got web access. I wouldn't buy a research paper either. The reason is that I only want to use a small fraction and I'll need it for 20 minutes whilst I extract the bit I need and plagerise it mercilessly:p. If I can just print that one bit out I'll be happy.
Its these circumstances when I want a tablet like device sitting next to my PC. Its dimesions should be somewhere between A5 and A4 notepad and weigh about the same (200g). The interface should be exactly the same as the iPod. A simple menu for selecting the book you want, and a scroll wheel for flicking through the pages. Left and right buttons to move back and forth through individual pages. There should be a stylus, so that you can highlight text. As you are never writing to the device, highlighting automatically places that text / picture into the clipboard of the host Mac/PC. Its must be wireless, preferably bluetooth, although the majority of its storage will come from a MMC card if you need to transfer alot of books. The screen should be relective, and black and white - no backlight nastiness. I don't need or want color or animation - yet.
bad move. (Score:5, Insightful)
For shame, UT - a bad start onto a dangerous slippery slope.
Re:bad move. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:bad move. (Score:5, Informative)
True, for some reason I absoloutely hate to read long texts on a computer screen. It's fine for short PDF files but as soon as I am dealing with a 50+ pages I like having an oldfashioned paper book in my hands rather than sitting in front of a desktop computer or even a laptop which at least is protable. Even computer printouts are inferior to a book since the book will usually be more compact.
Re:Try telling us why (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the UI would be inferior mainly because flipping through pages with my fingers will always be more convenient than a search box (that needs either a stylus or keyboard to work) or previous/next buttons that go one page at a time.
A bookmarks UI will either need screen space or an extra step to access, as opposed to just grabbing and flipping the pages. Have you ever held your fingers between pages at a few spots in a book and flipped back and forth?
How about comparing/referenceing multiple pages from the same or multiple books?
Also, it's always nice to have a feel for where you are in a book, and I don't think a picture or number can convey that as well as physical pages.
Sure, it would be nice to have a thin letter sized tablet to carry on the subway for reading, and I think it would certainly add some useful features (automatic updating of news, searching and highlighting, etc), but I can think of many situations where I would be more comfortable with real books.
Re:Try telling us why (Score:5, Insightful)
Man, and you thought Americans were undereducated and brainwashed before, wait till this takes off!
And it's starting in Texas, how poetic.
Re:Try telling us why (Score:5, Insightful)
How many of these students will print out reams of paper that they would not have done if they had the book infront of them?
Books are a superior technology! (Score:5, Interesting)
While technologies like digital ink, which is an absorptive display that doesn't consume power unless you're changing the text, may offer a superior technology to books in the future, the book is a much better technology than current computers for reading large amounts of text.
Re:bad move. (Score:5, Informative)
The University of Texas "Undergraduate Library" has an interesting history - basically, the library was developed to allow undergraduates to browse stacks - before then, only graduates could do so - undergraduates had to use the card catalog to find exactly the book they wanted and give it to the librarian.
This was in the 1950s-1960s.
But since then, almost every library is open to every student - making an "undergraduate library" a bit of a redundancy. Already, the "Undergraduate Library" was not the main library on campus - that honor went to the Perry-Castaneda Library a blocks south. (It's a Biiiig campus)
That's where all 90,000 books will go.
It's actually a better deal - instead of looking in the directory at the PCL and finding out that the book you want is at the OTHER library (something that's happened quite a bit to me!) the books will be in one place. Already the "Undergraduate Library" - or as it's now known, the Flawn Academic Center, was used primarily as study-group area (because it had a big lobby) the housing of the campus computer store, and one of the largest computer labs on campus.
So, to recap: No books will be thrown out, they'll be put where they ought to be - with the other books, in the other, main library on campus. This is a win-win.
Re:bad move. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:bad move. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like a minor restructuring of the library system blown out of all proportion because one building that formerly held books doesn't any more.
Re:bad move. (Score:5, Informative)
Even in 1996, the first floor was magazines and study area, the second floor meeting rooms and computer lab, the top floor was an art gallery and ball room! Not much room for books in the first place.
Re:bad move. (Score:5, Insightful)
These libraries are part of an evolution - think back to card catalogues, shelves full of scrolls perhaps before that - written language itself is not so old in the scope of human history.
For scientific research I find the online resources to be a tremendous improvement. If I read a paper and want to find referenced article I can click a link and have it immediately - rather than climbing three floors in the stacks. I can go through a lot more information, sorting and sifting through the relevant items much more effectively online compared with doing it on foot in the library... I still do love the smell of all those books though...
Re:Reading on the john (Score:5, Insightful)
RTFA? (Score:5, Informative)
The books were just moved to other libraries on campus.
From TFA:
"This summer, 90,000 volumes were transferred to other collections in the campus's massive library system."
Re:You know (Score:5, Interesting)
To get access to it you'll have to have an account at an academic library though.
Change for the better (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Change for the better (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Clearly you are not a student (Score:5, Interesting)
Online research is good and all... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, until a university scans all of its book collection for online perusal, this is a step in the wrong direction.
Much ado about (practically) NOTHING (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/about/news/fac.html [utexas.edu]
Even though the undergraduate library apparently had 90,000 volumes there, NO ONE I KNOW used it as an actual-book library. Practically all the useful real books are at the main campus library (Perry-Castaneda), not the UGL. First floor of the UGL had magazines. Second floor had a pretty large and useful computer lab. Third floor had mostly media for checkout (CDs, DVDs, etc.). There were some shelves of books there, but very, VERY rarely did I ever need one of them. The fourth floor was cordoned off and had some art pieces in storage that would go to the Ransom Center elsewhere on campus.
It makes a lot of sense to move those few volumes that were actually at the UGL to the other libraries. This creates a lot more room at the UGL/FAC for study areas, which were pretty lacking.
So, while the blaring headlines make it sound like a big deal, from the point-of-view of a UT student (going on five years now and counting, woo hoo), this isn't that big of a deal.
Misleading Headline. . . and article (Score:5, Informative)
See, back in the Bad Old Days, undergrads were sort of like roaches. You wanted them out of sight, and you certainly didn't want them anywhere important. So they weren't permitted in the stacks at university libraries. Instead, you filled out a form and gave it to a librarian, and they brought you the book you requested. Fill out the form wrong and get the wrong book? Fill out another form. All this to prevent those scalliwag undergrads from mussing the stacks.
In the 50's, Harvard had what was (at the time) a revolutionary idea: don't just keep undergrads out of the stacks- quarantine them! They built Lamont library, the nations first undergraduate library. The shelves were filled with the sort of intro-level books on topics that undergrads were likely to research for their classes. There was a recreational reading collection, and rooms for group study. The undergrads got to browse the books and had a place to gather. The grad school and departmental libraries didn't have to interact with undergrads. Everyone was happy.
Since those heady days, things have changed a bit. Many university systems have replaced cantankerous old librarians and card catalogues with computer-indexed search systems, and English majors employed part-time to damage the bar code scanner. Many schools have open stacks now, and have opened all their libraries to undergraduates. Furthermore, the growth of collections means that more and more a dedicated undergraduate library can't house all the books that an undergrad might need. Now you have your collection divided between the grab-bag of books in the undergrad collection, the in-depth books in the departmental or grad school collection, and the overflow books available by request from the warehouse featured in "Raiders of the Lost Arc".
In such a situation, some schools (apparently such as UT) have found that the undergrad library is more of a bother than a help as a library. Undergrads still go there to study, but increasingly the books that they want are in other parts of the library system; for books that might be useful to both undergraduates and grad students and faculty, you either have to duplicate efforts or force grads and faculty to wander over to the undergrad library. So there's a logical solution: convert the undergrad library to what it really is- a student center for undergrads, oriented somewhat around studying and writing papers- and move the books back into the general library system, which everyone is already using anyway.
This has little or nothing to do with "taking the books out of libraries" as near as I can tell. UT will still have its giant collection of real books that you can check out and read when the power goes out, or on a plane for 12 hours, or in the bathroom without your eyes bleeding and falling out of your head. They will continue to buy new books as they are published, and maintain the old collection. No need to push the bibliophile panic button just yet.
The books are being moved. Not replaced. (Score:5, Informative)
Moving the books to other libraries and dedicating the space to student gatherings/ studies is not that bad of a thing. Considering that there seems to be a need of group study areas, this might help with that.
We already have computer labs, laptops for check out, and wifi in there. So really, the main addition are the colorful chairs.
What about the interface? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would never buy an encylopedia now that I've got web access. I wouldn't buy a research paper either. The reason is that I only want to use a small fraction and I'll need it for 20 minutes whilst I extract the bit I need and plagerise it mercilessly
Its these circumstances when I want a tablet like device sitting next to my PC. Its dimesions should be somewhere between A5 and A4 notepad and weigh about the same (200g). The interface should be exactly the same as the iPod. A simple menu for selecting the book you want, and a scroll wheel for flicking through the pages. Left and right buttons to move back and forth through individual pages. There should be a stylus, so that you can highlight text. As you are never writing to the device, highlighting automatically places that text / picture into the clipboard of the host Mac/PC. Its must be wireless, preferably bluetooth, although the majority of its storage will come from a MMC card if you need to transfer alot of books. The screen should be relective, and black and white - no backlight nastiness. I don't need or want color or animation - yet.
Oh... and I want a pony.
Re:Why (Score:5, Funny)
You should try the aisle with the dictionaries in - it's a blast