(AP) Texas library offers glimpse of bookless future

Texas has seen the future of the public library, and it looks a lot like an Apple Store: Rows of glossy iMacs beckon. iPads mounted on a tangerine-colored bar invite readers. And hundreds of other tablets stand ready for checkout to anyone with a borrowing card.

Even the librarians imitate Apple’s dress code, wearing matching shirts and that standard-bearer of geek-chic, the hoodie. But this $2.3 million library might be most notable for what it does not have ”“ any actual books.

That makes Bexar County’s BibiloTech the nation’s only bookless public library, a distinction that has attracted scores of digital bookworms, plus emissaries from as far away as Hong Kong who want to learn about the idea and possibly take it home.

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4 comments on “(AP) Texas library offers glimpse of bookless future

  1. Capt. Father Warren says:

    One emp burst will erase the whole thing. But all my books will be just as useful as the second before.

  2. Ad Orientem says:

    Someone please stop the world. I want to get off.

  3. dwstroudmd+ says:

    Alas, Captain Father Warren, Sir!, it will only take a change of code. No EMP will be needed. (Try getting your data out of systems from before 2000 which have been stored and no one’s used them.)

  4. David Keller says:

    Of course, if we have a siginificant EMP burst it will be due to a nuclear explosion or the sun expolding, either of which which will give us many other things to worry about.