![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/elibr.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
HOUSTON, May 13 – Students attending the University
\n of Texas at Austin will find something missing from the undergraduate
\n library this fall.<\/p>\n
Books.<\/p>\n
By mid-July, the university says, almost all of the
\n library’s 90,000 volumes will be dispersed to other university collections
\n to clear
\n space for a 24-hour
\nelectronic information commons, a fast-spreading phenomenon that is transforming
\nresearch and study on campuses around the country.Forum: Ideas on Contemporary
\nEducation<\/p>\n
"In this information-seeking America, I can’t think of anyone who would
\nelect
\nto build a books-only library," said Fred Heath, vice provost of the University
\nof Texas Libraries in Austin.<\/p>\n
Their new version is to include "software suites" – modules with computers
\nwhere students can work collaboratively at all hours – an expanded center for
\nwriting instruction, and a center for computer training, technical assistance
\nand repair.<\/p>\n
As a library lover and alum of UT Austin (Institute Scanning and indexing electronic versions of older documents, from the New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HOUSTON, May 13 – Students attending the University of Texas at Austin will find something missing from the undergraduate library this fall. Books. By mid-July, the university says, almost all of the library’s 90,000 volumes will be dispersed to other … Continue reading
\n of Latin American Studies, 1978), we read this news with mixed emotions.
\n The
\n corner of the UT campus where we spent most of our time contained the Nettie
\n Lee Benson Collection,<\/a> featuring the greatest collection of Latin American
\n manuscripts, maps, original resources and out of print books in the US,
\n where se spent endless hours researching obscure shamanistic practices
\n and native American textiles. Right next door was the LBJ
\n Presidential Library,<\/a> with all sorts of obscure
\n remnants and relics of the Great Society and a great place to escape the
\n 100 degree summer heat endemic in Austin. The uniqueness of these collections,
\n which contain parchment scrolls and maps, notebooks, relics,
\n gifts
\n and
\n historical
\n artifacts
\n in addition to rare books, make us dubious as to the wisdom of moving to
\n all electronic collections. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n books and other printed materials is an important move in preserving and
\n making available our written heritage, but here’s hoping it never completely
\n does away with physical, tactile, three-dimensional spaces dedicated to
\n the preservation of those elusive original items not so easily reduced to
\n ones and zeros.<\/em><\/p>\n