Like everyone else, my college started to panic about the failing economy this year. In the spring, they released a proposal to eliminate about 10% of the operating budget in order to preserve the rapidly diminishing endowment. The largest budget-cut, and certainly the one that sparked the loudest din and debate, was the closing of one of the libraries.
It was the performing arts library – a collection of original musical scores, scripts, taped dance performances, reams of sheet music, and countless musical recordings. The administration hoped to distribute the collection among our neighboring schools, moving the bulk of it into the main library, and begin to put everything into electronic form.
Fuming and itching for a fight, the performing arts faculty began to plead for their course materials in class. Students bitterly recounted experiences with belligerent library staff at other schools. However, the most controversial aspect of the proposed change was the part about going digital.
While everyone was reliant on the internet for everything, everyone was reluctant to make that final step: we loved books, we loved holding them, we loved everything about them. The recent revelation that E-Books are subject to the whims of Big Brother only promotes the idea that nothing can replace the ownership of a physical book.
By the end of the year, the plan to close the library in my school was disbanded and the debates faded out, unresolved.