Was the headline on the editorial page of the Northwest Herald today right? It read, "Borders' loss bitter news". Should the headline have been "Borders' losses bitter news"?
Two days ago local readers were treated to this sentence in the Northwest Herald: "It owes tens of millions of dollars to publishers, including $41.1 million to Penguin Putnam, $36.9 million to Hachette Book Group, $33.8 million to Simon & Schuster, and $33.5 million to Random House."
Ho-hum. Next article?
Look at this in another format:
$41,100,000 Penguin Putnam
$36,900,000 Hachette Book Group
$33,800,000 Simon & Schuster
$33,500,000 Random House
$145,300,000
That's 145 MILLION DOLLARS!
Consider what that unpaid debt means not only to the Borders' employees who will lose their jobs but also to the employees of those publishers and to the authors of the books that won't be sold.
At what point, a whole lot sooner, should the publishers have stopped shipping to Borders?
The editorial concluded with "The manner in which many people consume the written word is changing..."
It changed years ago, when school stopped teaching students to read and stopped requiring students to read, and when parents let TV and videogames take over their childrens' lives. Someone once said the person who doesn't read is no better than the person who cannot read.
Kids have learned history from The Simpsons. They think South Park is a good model. They believe what they read on the internet. Use a dictionary? Ha! Just Google it. Research your paper? Nah, just copy-and-paste. And the teachers let them get away with it!
What will the library of the future look like? Maybe it will just be an old building filled with dust.
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