slamboard

The new eBook reader that Amazon is introducing has not captured my imagination. That may be becasue I am not a consumer of books in any form. I rely on the public library and the SPCA used book sale and the generosity of colleagues for my meager demand for long form literature.

The consumers of the world who are also readers may embrace this device with some vigor. I am a bit intrigued by the idea that the digital information that comprises a book is going to be deliverable via a wide area cellular network. I’m not sure how soon that will be a reality, but the hardware is capable and a carrier is talking to Amazon.

I have read a few travel books in recent years. I am glad that I don’t live in an area that has been written up by Rick Steves. He is a trusted source of information for American tourists who want to learn to be travelers. He has regretfully tipped the masses of to many undiscovered places that became overcrowded tourist stops in the span of just a few years. We suspect that there are a few places that he doesn’t write about because he is scared of spoiling them.

His model of a single trusted source making a life’s work out of figuring out the tricky stuff for tourists so their one chance to visit a region can be a great experience works well. A totally different tack is taken by Rough Guides. These are generally written by people who live in the regions about which they write. For some of the authors, it may be the only travel guide that they ever write. I think this model can work too, but I suspect that they vary a great deal in tone, and in accuracy.

I often get distracted by issues that have nothing to do with me personally. This is an example of one such story. I was actually doing a web search to verify the term discard as being applied to library books slated for donation or destruction. This was research in relation to my childhood exposure to novels. My aunt was a librarian and we occasionally got a box of discards from her.

This is an interesting post. I was writing as I did my research and I wrote all of this quoted text before I found an entirely different side to the story…

Earlier this year a librarian at a state run university in California became upset by the school’s plan to destroy 200,000 books to make room for a Starbucks. He created a website with the goal of communicating the situation and his opinion to a wide audience.

I am not surprised that an institution would plan such an action. These are books that have been in boxes for years and nobody has borrowed any of them for ten years. It makes sense to me to use the space that they are taking up for something that the students and staff will enjoy and something that generates revenue for the school and probably some employment for students.

If the assertion that they made no effort to donate the books is true, it is unfortunate. People with stronger views might think that it is shameful.

There is only one detail of the story that I find shameful. The school used a law to censor this librarian. It is against the law to publish the name of the school without permission. They threatened the librarian with criminal proceedings. He took down his website.

Here is a link to the floor descriptions for the library. There is no actual mention of Starbucks.

The librarian’s name is Bruce Emerton and I am not sure if the books still exist.

The source for an alternate viewpoint placed a comment in one of the blogs that has been repeating and amplifying Bruce Emerton’s alarm. The comment came right after a comment from Bruce himself that included his contact information and a link to a petition that is no longer there.

The other viewpoints are at MacManX.com and come from Bruce’s coworkers who dispute what Mr. Emerton says point by point. The most compelling part of their argument is the fact that the university is paying $70,000 per year to store the books in question. They assert that while they are in storage during the library expansion, normal procedures related to discarding books are ongoing.

I have to wonder how many people find this story and form an opinion based on only one side.