Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland has just opened, with 550 students attending the first day of classes this week. The newly-built campus has a gorgeous library building, but no plans to stock it with books. Instead, it will be the nation's first all-digital college library. But it gets weirder than that.It's a scenario that science fiction writer Vernor Vinge predicted in his near-future novelRainbows End, where the UC San Diego library grinds all of its books up in a machine that uses shotgun sequencing techniques to reassemble the books in (slightly error-prone) digital form. At Florida Polytechnic, there are no books to recycle — instead, there are software programs that allow students to access e-books in a variety of ways.Librarians will also no longer work at a reference desk. Instead, the school calls it a "success desk."
Soon to come , "First University without professors".
Be creative and makeup your own "First ...." headlines. It's Fun
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