Is information technology leading students to read fewer books? The question was posed by a faculty member on the board of trustees of a small college. It is partly a mischievous question, probably not asked with the expectation that some shift of policy or resources would follow the answer. This might be one of those questions that points to others that are not being asked, and to assumptions that nobody stops to examine. And, of course, this is the kind of question famously called “academic.”