To the Editor:

I recently read Technician’s recent debate regarding the two libraries at NC State. I will now offer my opinion.

During my tour of Hunt Library as a first-year graduate student, my first thought was “Where are the books?” Later, I observed a majority of the books were kept behind a sterile pane of glass — or whatever it is. You select a book, and it is then retrieved by the bookBot, which is placed within a long and towering series of metallic stacks.

This, to me, begs for apocalypse. 

I am, indeed, aware that Hunt Library provides essential resources, many of which I have used in my tenure as a doctoral student and candidate. And keep in mind, I am not opposed to technology — I use supercomputers to simulate the weather after all. 

But I am filled with existential horror when I walk through the doors of Hunt Library. 

It is the perfect metaphor for universities today. Sacrificing wonder for convenience. Flashing lights. Gizmos. Junk that causes rich, spiritless donors to open their wallets. 

I get it. Book stacks may not be attractive for some — and are arguably claustrophobic; I accept that criticism. But part of the beauty of the Bookstacks is that you can discover materials that you were not even looking for initially.

And you can’t get that experience through an online search. For example, if I need a specific book about boundary layer meteorology, I can go to that part of the Bookstacks, and retrieve that book. A couple of shelves down, however, I may find a book on emissions. Or environmental policy. Or wind power meteorology. Stuff that wouldn’t immediately appear on the first page of an online search.

That beauty of discovery is lost with the bookBot. 

Is it a neat invention? Sure. Whatever. 

But all it is to me is a metallic gatekeeper of knowledge. It would be better served as scrap metal.

I have more to say, but I’ll end the criticism now. I’m getting too pissed off. I need to watch my blood pressure, and this topic is increasing my craving for nicotine.

Screw the bookBot. I hope it gets struck by lightning.