The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

One prestigious coeducational college preparatory boarding school recently made a radical change to its library. With 159years of academic excellence, one would expect the school to be steeped in tradition. However, a visitor to the campus might be surprised to learn that the 159–year-old school’s library has gone almost all digital.

In a newspaper interview, the former headmaster said, “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books.”

The school reportedly is very happy with the now-completed changes. Most of the library’s previous 40,000 books have since been replaced with 24 million ebooks, academic journals, image and film libraries, and other educational content. The result has been a huge increase in the information available to students, along with the cancellation of any thoughts of adding a multi-million dollar expansion to the library’s building. 

That sounds like a winning combination: better service with lower expenses.

I will suggest that there is a lesson here for many specialized libraries, including genealogy libraries.

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