REGARDING your story about a Newhaven school replacing its library books with computers (The Argus, May 18), I would like to add my voice to this.

I am a librarian at Varndean School. Like most librarians, I am aware of the growing role technology plays in information access. I myself am more likely to turn to the internet rather than an encyclopedia.

However, it has always been the nature of libraries to respond to patrons’ desires and evolve accordingly.

Our circulation numbers continue to increase as we shift our focus from old-fashioned reference books to novels, manga, memoirs and hands-on nonfiction.

Research has only been a small part of libraries’ general mission anyway. Libraries also exist to provide entertainment at little or no cost to users and, most importantly, to foster a love of reading.

Studies show that most children in the 12–16 age range who stop reading for pleasure are not likely to do so as an adult.

School libraries help bridge this gap.

I suspect Tideway School’s decision was made by people with only an abstract notion of the function and value of libraries. I wonder if they actually asked the students what they wanted?

They might have been surprised. I can’t help but remember a comment I overheard at my library. When a student placed a reservation on a book that was checked out, another student told him that the book was available online if he really wanted to read it.

To this, the first student responded: “I’d rather wait. Who wants to read a book on a screen anyway?”

Emrys Minnig, Elm Grove, Brighton

ONE aspect of the problem posed by new technology not covered by Dr Stuart Newton in his article (The Argus, May 23) is a purely practical one.

A student using traditional sources of knowledge may have several books open at once.

Say you are writing an essay on Shakespearean tragedy.

You might have an edition of Hamlet open at a certain page, Macbeth also open, and you might have one or two critical commentaries open as well.

In those books you may even have several markers, so you can go quickly to the endnotes or the glossary or index or to another scene of the play.

You also have a jotter open containing your own notes, and finally in front of you the page on which you are writing your essay. I certainly remember when I was a student working in this way.

How do you accomplish the same thing on a single computer screen? No doubt one could juggle many “windows”, but this is less efficient than the traditional method.

Replacing books with computers can only result in shallower study methods, and therefore shallower knowledge. In any case, my own experience suggests (and recent scientific research confirms) that we read less carefully on screen.

We skim loads of text, looking for the required data, and then browse elsewhere.

Those brought up solely on screen reading tend to lack the skills of attention and concentration needed to read a book.

And surely no one can build up with an ephemeral screen-load of words the same physical and emotional relationship that one feels with a good book.

Graham Chainey, Marine Parade, Brighton