The Removable Type: Mapping Digital Literacy at Alderman Library and the University

In 2014, the most recent proposal to renovate Alderman Library was put forth by the University of Virginia. But it is part of a much larger struggle between adherents of a 21st century digital education, and its opponents. In this paper, I seek out a middle ground by confronting new forms of electronic media and their potential effects on the library and university. Using communications theory, I attempt to track the social and personal attributes of digital texts and MOOCs that have threatened to subsume public repositories of data and information underneath privatized, profitable control. And if greater discourse isn’t promoted at the University of Virginia, it may very well find itself possessing a library full of distanced, individualized scholars and citizens.

This thesis is dedicated firstly to my family. But I also dedicate it to my friend and roommate Kurt Hilburger, who was never afraid.