The powers-to-be at Vermont State University claim to have seen the future of libraries and have pronounced it “digital.” To which we join with students, faculty, staff and the Vermont Library Association in saying, “Not so fast” — the age of analog still has much to recommend it, and a digital-only collection does not a library make.

As VtDigger reported, the news that traditional academic libraries would go the way of the dinosaur on July 1 with the launch of the newly consolidated Vermont State University was delivered out of the blue via email earlier this month to what are now often called “stakeholders,” but once might have been described as students, faculty and staff who actually use the libraries on the five campuses of Northern Vermont University, Castleton University and Vermont Technical College.

Henceforth, the administration decreed, the libraries would become all digital, and the spaces currently occupied by the relics would be repurposed for other uses, all in the name of “greater equity of access” and “financial sustainability.” Physical materials are to be offered to public libraries if members of the academic community don’t, or can’t, take them.

Predictably — although it appears that the administration somehow failed to predict it — the blowback was fierce, with the result that president Parwinder Grewal felt obliged to apologize for how the news was communicated. Which he should have. It was akin to suddenly announcing the end of a long-term romantic relationship with an email, subject line “Time to move on.”

That, however, was the least of the problems with the decision, as students and community members pointed out at a raucous forum several days after it was announced. A second-year English major perhaps spoke for many: “I feel like we’re losing the heart of our community when we lose our library.”

Indeed, it is hard to imagine a university worthy of the name that is not centered around a library with a robust collection of physical as well as digital materials and expert staff to guide inquiry in fruitful directions.

Additionally, as other students noted and the Vermont Library Association (VLA) observed in a later statement, while digital materials have their place, when it comes to nonfiction and complex texts, many people prefer the print version, which research strongly suggests is superior for comprehension, retention and reflection. Besides that, mandating youthful eyes to spend even more time on a screen does not appear to us to be either an educational or societal benefit.

Moreover, digital materials are often more expensive than print, and, as the VLA noted, “are subject to complex licenses that dictate who can use the materials and how many people can access a title at the same time.” How that situation promotes equity to access is not clear, not to mention that students living in remote areas of the state might well not have sufficient broadband capability to make off-campus use of the digital materials.

Many other aspects of this debacle also deserve comment, but we will confine ourselves to two. The state’s public libraries already struggle to find the shelf space and staff to maintain their own collections. It is a pipe-dream to suppose that they would be able to absorb large quantities of physical materials shed by the university, not to mention that the state’s whole interlibrary loan system would suffer if those materials were no longer available.

We also note a troubling suggestion buried in the FAQ put out by the university. “Moving forward the library will be purchasing those items that our faculty and students need ... rather than purchasing items that have not been requested.”

This signals that the digital libraries may not be fully curated by knowledgeable professional librarians whose expertise is essential to building and maintaining collections that provide the resources to enhance intellectual life and advance learning, or promote the joys and benefits of browsing. This suspicion is corroborated by the news that the move to digital-only would result in the loss of seven full-time and three part-time jobs, to be replaced by some sort of 24/7 chat service that allows consultation with an online librarian. Which, to our mind, is no substitute for the real thing.

Grewal is adamant that the library decision, along with an accompanying one to downgrade some athletic programs, will not be reversed. If not, Vermont State University will be shortchanging both the academic and broader communities of Vermont, which is not exactly how to get off to a strong start.

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