Well, it's official, Purdue's libraries are pretty bad. As compared with libraries from the rest of America's universities, we are 75th out of 111. And in the Big Ten we are rated toward the bottom.

To this we say: so what?

Honestly, when was the last time you went to the library to do research for a class project?

In the days of the Internet and high-speed networking, the need for vast and expensive libraries is declining.

The Purdue library system's main function is quiet study rooms. Although the Undergraduate library is not very quiet, most of the students that spend time there are simply doing homework, not researching books contained there.

Most students do most, if not all, of their research for projects and papers either in the computer labs or online in their dorm rooms. Why, then, should Purdue spend any more money than is necessary on improving their libraries?

For the science and technology students, the libraries are doing a good job. Journals and periodicals provide the basis for most of the research, and Purdue already spends "too much" on journals, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

For the students in liberal arts and humanities majors, the focus does lean toward books, but Purdue's Humanities, Social Sciences and Education library is well in to a multi-million dollar renovation that will vastly improve the library's resources.

When our state funding is being slashed more and more each day, it would be a waste of time and money to try to make major improvements to our libraries when their usefulness is already over-shadowed by the computer labs'.

It would be nice to say that Purdue's library system is second to none but when the importance of them is waning, expensive improvements are simply not needed.

n Editorial Board: John Wakefield, Heather Mangold, Melissa Davis, Laura Pelner and Dave Stephens.