Misunderstanding The Digital Music Debate... Again
Be Wary Of Politicians Looking To Can Spam

Libraries Competing Against The Internet

Culture

from the gotta-keep-up dept

Mon, Sep 9th 2002 11:01am — Mike Masnick
It seems with high speed internet connections in every dorm room, and more and more research materials showing up online, it's tough for the typical university library to keep up. So, they're adapting to the digital age by adding all sorts of "extra" features to try to draw people out of their dorm rooms and into the library itself. These include things like Starbucks operating within the library itself, comfy chairs, and other things to make the whole library-going experience more social and less isolated.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

4 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    gray powell, 9 Sep 2002 @ 11:14am

    works and doesn't

    yea our library does that.. Put a big coffee shop inside, nice comfy leather chairs, and wireless laptops you can check out.. And then they are going to change it to make it close at midnight. Crock a shit

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    MeV, 9 Sep 2002 @ 11:42am

    Another place to study...

    Sometimes, your dorm room isn't as quiet or hospitable as you'd like. Idiot dorm mates, noisy party on the floor, whatever. The library is a good place to cocoon.

    If you want to nosh or drink coffee, the local Starbucks is better.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    lazy2register, 9 Sep 2002 @ 12:49pm

    It's about the material

    I think, it is about the material, one would get at the library vs Internet. These libraries have a hard time competing against the Internet to keep research papers, journals and other reference materials up-to-date. I have seen a trend where students are more inclined to Internet while writing a research paper, because it is simple and effective. I have seen some instructors who enforce that students should have at least 50% bibliographical references that are "non-online".
    I think that, on-site features such as Starbucks at the library would help if students can *actually* find what they are looking for. The competition for the content is really fierce and as I can see, so far Internet is winning.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Matt E, 10 Sep 2002 @ 6:59am

      Re: It's about the material

      I would say rather, that the Internet has a hard time competing with the library for content. The Internet only appears simple and effective when in fact for writing a research paper it is probably neither. Sure, some research materials are available online, but it is a pitifully small amount compared to the vast resources of a good research library. If there is good material for students to use on the Internet, chances are it is because the library paid for access to it. This is the library's material, not something that sprung from the primordial swamp of the Internet. That doesn't mean that instructors should require that materials be found offline. If a solid paper can be written with online sources, so be it. A good instructor will know the subejct well enough to recognize a solid paper based on solid research, whether the materials used had to be photocopied by someone inside a physical library or were printed from PDF files fetched through the library's electronic journal subscriptions.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]


Misunderstanding The Digital Music Debate... Again
Be Wary Of Politicians Looking To Can Spam
Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

Friday

19:39 Important Announcement: Techdirt Is Migrating To A New Platform (0)
More arrow

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.