Oh, Great...World's First Public Library with No Books

So here we go again...another example of a bookless library that caters to the lowest common denominator in the name of being "cutting edge." According to the Mail Online website, "The world's first public library with no books...is scheduled to open this fall in San Antonio, Texas." And the misguided fool who designed it, Nelson Wolf, is quoted in the same article as saying, "If you want to get an idea what it looks like, go to an Apple store." Well, excuse me for being both unimpressed and underwhelmed by that mental picture, Nelson.

 

The plan is to turn a 4,989 square-foot county building into a sleek, modern space that will have 100 e-readers available for circulation and to take out, 50 e-readers for children, 50 computer stations, 25 laptops and 25 tablets.

County residents will be able to take out books on any of the devices in the library, take out one of the 50 e-readers for a period of time or bring their own e-readers to the library and load books onto their own devices.

Take a look at those numbers for just a second: 100 e-readers available for loan to patrons, 25 laptops, 25 tablets, 50 computer stations, and an additional 50 e-readers dedicated strictly for use by children.  And all of 10,000 e-books to choose from (big whoop).  So the entire facility (I refuse to call this atrocity a library) will service a grand total of 250 people at a time...counting the walk-aways who take e-readers home with them.

Of course, there will be wifi for walk-ins who bring their own devices.  But why would they want to do that when they can already download library e-books from home anyway?  

 Does no one realize that "cutting edge" is a two-way sword and that not everything need, or should, be cutting edge? Stupid, stupid, stupid...another Starbucks-without-coffee being funded by public tax dollars.