I realize that change is inevitable, but college library shelves without physical books are jarring to those who have never contemplated such a reality. The motivating premise behind offloading physical books is the fact that students have not been borrowing print books. Last week, my own college library’s empty shelves found me with red-rimmed eyes, seeking solace in the company of librarians who shared my grief.
Librarians do not all agree on what should be done about the increasing lack of interest in print books. In May of 2021, Publisher’s Weekly published an article in which Tim Coates, a London-based bookseller and library advocate, warned of a massive decline in public library usage. If check-out rates fell by 31% over 8 years in the USA and 22% over 10 years in Australia, it fell a whopping 70% in the U.K. from 2000 to 2021 (Albanese).
Some library leaders feel the answer is to follow popular trends. If people do not check out books and prefer digital material, these library leaders feel shelves full of books serve no purpose. I see the logic, although people of every age in my own circle say they like to hold a “real” book in their hands. My own experience with books is that discovery of new titles happens, in the main, when I am amidst books in a library or bookstore. Less often do I find and buy a book, print or digital, after having discovered it online. I try my best to discover books through NetGalley and Goodreads, of course. I read a great deal of digital writing, particularly books, but my eyes don’t appreciate the glare of the screen. My greatest relaxation is with print books. Those are the books I don’t forget to finish because they are there, page marked.
Book lovers may share this trait of reading both digital and print books, but we cannot ignore the trend toward online reading. The question is whether digital browsing through social media posts has the same literary effect on a populace as engagement with books. Not surprisingly, literacy levels have plummeted. Writing for Inside Higher Ed, Professor Steven Mintz (University of Texas at Austin) noted in January of this year (2022) that “38 percent of Hispanic adults, 25 percent of Black adults, and 20 percent of white adults” admitted to not having read a book in whole or even partially in the last year, regardless of whether it was print, electronic or audio. Apparently, the same is true for a full 11% of “adults with a bachelor’s or other advanced degree.” I believe Mintz when he writes that the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement reports increasing unwillingness of students to complete assigned readings. That has been my own experience as an academic.
Does it matter to the nuts and bolts of life whether we are highly literate? Writing in Forbes (Sept 2020), Michael T. Nietzel (former Missouri State University president) noted a study by Gallup on behalf of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy that disclosed low levels of adult literacy could cost the U.S. up to $2.2 trillion a year. How? Literacy goes hand-in-hand with “personal income, employment levels, health, and overall economic growth,” writes Nietzel. Thus if 54% of Americans 16-74 (130 million people, roughly) cannot read beyond a sixth-grade level, their income, health, job security, and economic growth will be impacted. Society works as a chain of dominos. How could struggling incomes and more health problems for some not impact all?
Fluency is the ability to communicate in any language. Good and easy-to-find source material enables a better grasp of a language, be it in the language of words, coding, or something else. Without good source material, which social media posts of dubious veracity, replete with grammatical errors, do not offer, how will mankind effectively communicate?
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