There are rolling hills and ivy-covered brick buildings. There are small classrooms, high-tech labs, and green fields. There's even a clock tower with a massive bell that rings for special events. Cushing Academy has all the characteristics of a New England school, with one exception. This year, after having had a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. They have decided to give away all their books. The future, they believe, is digital. "When I look at books, I see an outdated technology," said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing. "We're not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and use technology. Instead of a traditional library, we're building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books on the computer. We see this as a model for the 21st-century school."  _ . Liz Vezina, a librarian at Cushing for 17 years, said she never imagined working as the director of a library without any books. "It makes me mad," said Vezina, who has made a career of introducing students to books. "I'm going to miss them, and there's something lost when they are done on a computer. There's sensual side to them -- the smell, the feel, the physicality of a book is something really special." Cushing is one of the first schools in the country to give up its books. William Powers, author of a book called the changes at Cushing "radical " and "a huge loss for students". "There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books," he said. "There is a kind of deep-dive reading that's almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author's ideas." In the opinion of Powers, actual books can make students   _  .
do a lot of quick reading form the habit of reading enjoy the pleasure of reading understand the author's views deeply