News Flash! Books still relevant in nation's colleges!

I read today's NYTimes article "College Libraries Not Just Books" with some amusement. Take the following quotes for example:

"But far from dying out, books remain colleges' single-most important source of information -- and the stacks are growing.

Some schools have found technology can complement books. Lafayette's new library is circulating 20,000 more items per year to students than its old one did. The statistic suggests electronic resources help students navigate book collections and find titles that would otherwise go unused."

I'm amused because more frequently than not, there are people who try to tell me that books are becoming a relic of the past, and one only needs a computer to research anymore. Now here's an article that confirms what librarians have always known - books will never die out, especially in our nation's colleges and universities.

Secondly, the author of this article understates the importance of technology in libraries. By writing that "some schools have found technology can complement books" implies that there are colleges and universities that don't believe this truism. I doubt it. Libraries cannot run without technology today. And good librarians know that technology only helps our students locate the necessary information within and outside of books.