Will universities ever learn from Blockbuster Videos?

During the academic terms, I frequent the university library to read newspapers the old fashioned way--holding the papers in my hand.  I better do that now before they completely go away, right?

I go there to browse through the Economist too--again, for the pleasure of reading the paper version.  I joke with the student-workers there that if not for me taking a few papers and magazines off the shelves, they wouldn't have any re-shelving to do!

I suppose there might even be some truth in that joke: a few days ago, I was reading the WSJ when a student-worker walked over to where I was seated and said with the friendliest of  smiles "the new Economist is here for you." 

Every time I go to the library, I think it is a wonderfully new structure that is a vastly underutilized developed real estate.   The thousands of books and reference encyclopedias that seem impressive don't look like anybody has even moved them even an inch.

Students rarely ever seem to be holding books or magazines in their hands anymore, leave alone the newspaper.  Come to think of it, I cannot recall the last time I ever saw a student reading any of the newspapers in the library!  They work with their laptops, or at the workstations, or engage in group study.  A few even borrow laptops from the library and go sit in their favorite corners and work.

In other words, the library is not a library as we might have used it in the past.

So, why retain this old format then?  An expensive structure that is a huge warehouse for old books and magazines?  There are plenty of self-storage units where we can warehouse these instead for way, way lower rates.

It is because higher education--of which the university I work is merely one example--is notorious for making glaciers seem like fast moving objects.  It will be years before higher education realizes that a lot of things have changed outside the university.  After all, a few Marxist comrades do not seem to have understood yet that the USSR is long gone!

"Creative destruction"--the trait of the market forces outside--doesn't exist within higher education.  Well, for the most part.  Faculty, however "radical" they might be in ideological terms, are the ultimate preservers of the status quo.  The reason is simple: status quo suits them all too well.

If I had my way, I would, for instance, move my classes into the library building itself.  I would have my students sit in groups of three at each "pod" that would have a computer.  The assignments that I typically give them as homework can easily become classwork, and then we could discuss their researched answers to the questions I pose, and articulate well-informed responses.  Libraries will continue to be the portal for "information," yes, but in a completely different way.

I fully recognize that this ain't gonna happen anytime soon.  How awful!

As a contrast, consider, for instance, one of my favorite examples in economic geography: the demise of the blockbuster video store.  Only a few years ago, video rental places were like libraries--people went there to rent movies.  And returned them within the stipulated time.  These kind of stores became standard fixtures at important traffic intersections--prime real estate for the business.

The web changed all that, and now Blockbuster is kaput. Bankruptcy.  Creative destruction happens all the time.

Except in higher education :)

Oh well ... I will laugh this one, also, off with the Onion's satire of the Blockbuster--this is from a couple of years ago, well before the bankruptcy