Bookless libraries aren’t quite so far-fetched as they used to be. Florida Polytechnic University, opening for the first time this fall, features a $60 million, Santiago Calatrava-designed main building with a library that doesn’t hold a single paper book within its walls. Instead, the library has space for reading, desks for doing work, and a number of desktops, laptops, and tablets readily available. It joins a small handful of universities that have opened such libraries in recent years. Instead of books, the library has a deal with publishers that lets students access a title once for free. If any other student “takes out” the ebook of that title, the library automatically purchases it for its collection.
This university’s library doesn’t have a single paper book
Of course, print still has an extremely important place in education and libraries — Florida Polytechnic University is rather unique in that an all-digital library makes sense for its curriculum. The new university is entirely focused on STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math degrees. Those programs have a much stronger focus on new material that’s widely available digitally than a literature course, for instance. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any paper books available, however. The university has book lending programs with nearby university systems, and it has a collection of roughly 7,000 books it obtained from another recently-closed polytechnic university — though administrators still have to figure out what to do with the paper books.
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