That’s the headline of a story over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, with librarians concerned that removing information commons (in the era of mobile computing and iPads) will slash the number of students coming to the library. Well, computers were added to boost traffic to libraries, so dropping them would naturally have an effect. But libraries are centrally located with good access and existing foot traffic (and close to food), which is why computer labs were put there, so a new use will draw upon those advantages. Librarians shouldn’t be too worried.

And anyway, will a mobile computing revolution be just around the corner? I was a student rep on Victoria University’s IT Committee in 1993-4, when I argued against the abolition of computer labs (we won). The IT people felt that laptops were coming down in price and the University could require students to buy them – 15 years on there are more laptops around campus, but also a lot more desktop computers. And where were the students with laptops going to sit? The library!