On October 14th, Cushing Academy will unveil its new ‘virtual library.’ The Fisher Watkins Library has been emptied of all books, and will soon be replaced by a cyber café, a faculty lounge, and several multimedia classrooms. “The new library will be full of interactive spaces where students and teachers can learn, relax, and share ideas,” said Dr. James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing Academy. The transformation of the library to become a virtual library is the newest face of Cushing’s three-year 21st century initiative. “For the past three years, Cushing has committed itself to being a leading 21st century educator,” said Tracy. According to Tracy, the Cushing Board of Trustees and the faculty passed the 21st century initiative unanimously .“There’s an enormous amount of support from the school,” he said. Other aspects of the 21st century initiative have included close relations between Cushing and a few universities, the development of several new courses, and consultations with several software developers. “We have built a strong relationship with Oxford University, as just a piece of a much larger commitment to educating and innovative teaching,” said Tracy. James Martin, a prominent software developer, has also played a large role in promoting Cushing’s virtual library. The decision to make the library virtual was made in May, and the process will cost an estimated $100,000. “Rather then replenishing physical books, we will use that money to buy access to books and magazines electronically,” said Tracy. The school’s yearly budget for the maintenance and purchase of books has been $30,000 in past years. Although the creation of the virtual library will be more costly, Tracy estimates that the maintenance of the system in future years will be $30,000. But Cushing Academy seems to believe that the changes, and the costs of those changes, are well worth it. “I think it’s going to the ways of the future,” said Tracy. “(Virtual libraries) are absolutely inevitable, because they make every bit of sense. We’re trying to find out what works and what doesn’t, and we’re happy to share that with other schools,” he continued. A large part of the 21st century initiative is to share information with educators across the nation. “Everything we’re doing we are trying to share openly with other schools,” Tracy said. However, Andover will not soon be following suit. Whereas one of the factors for change at Cushing Academy was due to low circulation of books, the circulation of books at the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library is on the rise. “We have very active circulation within our library,” said Elizabeth Tully, Director of the Library. The Andover library is much larger than Cushing’s library, holding approximately 120,000 books at any given time. “We have bins of books coming in and out every day, and we borrow as much as we lend,” said Tully. According to library statistics, 6,212 books circulated through the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library in the month of 2009. This number included books that were circulated through the consortium. 5,339 books that belonged to the library circulated in that month. Oliver Wendell Holmes’ access to books is further expanded through the NOBLE (North of Boston Library Exchange) consortium. According to Tully, participation in the consortium expands the collection to 3 million books in the North Boston area. While Tully realizes the potential in electronic sources, Andover’s library will maintain a balance between the electronic and the print sources. “We have a great print collection because we put a great deal of effort into getting and maintaining the books, and we further enhance the collection with electronic references,” she said. “We could not serve our users well without a balanced collection of print and electronic resources,” Tully continued. As for the future, it is clear that virtual books have become increasingly popular. “Electronic access to encyclopedias is simply better—to use, to read, to quote, to print, and to save,” Tully said. Other members of the community agree. “I think the library will always have books, though some books lend themselves to electronic format more than others,” said Tim Sprattler, Assistant Director of the Andover Archives. “More reference books are available through electronic resources; more kids can access the texts at once,” Sprattler continued. However, some students remain dubious as to the electronic future. “Isn’t the point of a library to have books?” asked Elizabeth Kelly ’11. Another student recognized that he rarely checked books out from the library. “It wouldn’t make a difference if the library didn’t have books, I don’t check them out,” said Justin Stachtiaris ’13.
