Developing the Concept of Bookless Libraries

Former reference collection shelving

Madison Public Library

Link to November 16 The Tartan (Carnegie Mellon University's student newspaper), "Bookless libraries increase accessibility".

Excerpt: There are many who have concerns about transitioning to an electronic medium. Johnsen points out that the idea of a bookless library is still very new and its execution has not yet been perfected. “I know of a project where many books were sent from the United States to foreign countries for cheap scanning. The books returned disbound and tied in bundles and unusable as books,” recounted [Mary Catharine] Johnsen, Posner Memorial Collection special collections and design librarian. “The pixels were not sent back to the United States in an accessible form. Therefore, until the pixels are accounted for, the books have died.”

Johnsen also said that even in successful scans of books to electronic formats, the many subtleties in a book’s presentation and metadata may be lost in an online medium. “For literature students, you really want to see the original format of the work as received by its first public. Was it a fancy coffee-table book? Was it a cheap paperback or flimsy pamphlet? Was it a colorful book to tempt you in a Victorian train station or an airport bookstall?”