Library update from Headmaster Tracy

September 10, 2009

Dear Cushing Parents, Alumni, and Friends:

Greetings from the campus!  As the school year begins, I write with exciting news from Cushing   of the transformation of the Fisher-Watkins Library collection to a digital format.

Many of you may already be aware of this project from our postings over the summer or from the recent media attention, especially in the Boston area.  Along with that attention have come some misperceptions.  I look forward to continued opportunities to share Cushing’s story with you and with the greater community, as well. 

As a natural and integral outgrowth of the school’s strategic commitment to becoming the national leader in 21st-century secondary education, Cushing Academy is replacing, over a two-year period, the library’s printed books with electronic sources.  This transformation places Cushing in the forefront of a pedagogical and technological shift. 

Above all, it is important to know that Cushing Academy is not going “bookless.”  The issue at hand is merely one of offering books via an electronic or printed medium.  Our view of the matter is that we love books so much that we want our students to have dramatically increased access to millions of volumes rather than just 20,000.  This year, the library still houses 10,000 volumes, and many of the books that have been removed from the library have found new homes in departmental offices – faculty had “first dibs” on all books before the remainders were donated to nearby schools.  Moreover, many teachers continue to assign printed books in their courses, and students are encouraged to read literature in any format they find most convenient.  I am delighted to see a Cushing Academy student sitting under a tree reading Chaucer, whether she or he holds a paperback or a Kindle to do so.  Be assured that books, in all formats, will continue to abound at Cushing!

At the same time, we are adding to the staff of librarians and transforming the library into a dynamic, interactive learning center that includes monitors that provide students with real-time interactive data and news feeds from around the world, state-of-the-art computers with high-definition screens for research and reading, a larger and more centralized circulation desk, quiet cyber-carrels, open classroom space, a faculty lounge, and a cyber-café in a convivial setting for formal and informal student and teacher interaction.  A terrace will serve as a gathering place in front of the library, with new access from the Curry Academic Center through the glass doors.  We anticipate it will be the most-utilized space on campus, and truly the heart of the campus, as a center of learning should be.

Cushing has for years been a laptop school, where all students bring laptops to their classrooms (provided free to financially needy students), every classroom is equipped with a “smart board” with access to the internet, and there is wi-fi across campus.  The entire library of exponentially expanding information Cushing accesses online now travels with each student and teacher to every classroom and all corners of campus.  The additional e-readers we have purchased initially provide yet another means of accessing e-books.  And, of course, the technology will continue to change, and we stand ready to embrace it.

Printed books are marvelous.  I am an incurable bibliophile and fan of the aesthetics that are distinctive to the experience of reading a printed book.  That being said, the younger generation as a rule does not share my nostalgia for the printed book, and they are discovering capabilities and aesthetics in the electronic world that my generation can scarcely fathom.  

The future of learning is electronic, and it opens up possibilities for the democratization of knowledge that humanity has rarely dared dream before.  The continuing reduction in cost and dramatic expansion in the availability of technology will soon put all of human culture in the palm of every student’s hand, from Boston to Bangalore.  This is a different future, I grant you, but one that, if properly shaped for humanizing contingencies by pioneers such as Cushing Academy, holds the promise for extraordinary unleashing of human creativity and potential.  The future is here at Cushing.

Jan joins me in sending our very best wishes to you, and we look forward to opportunities for you to visit the campus during this school year to experience the library firsthand.

Sincerely,

James Tracy
Headmaster