Libraries sound death knell for books on cassette

The cassette tape — once the preferred medium for car tunes and underground ’80s punk rock — had been living out a modest retirement, working occasionally in libraries as audiobooks. Now, newer, flashier media like downloadable books, combined with changing listening habits, are sending the cassette into obsolescence. Libraries are scorning cassettes as they would a poorly plotted romance novel.

“We’re letting them die their own slow death,” said Nancy Tracy, Salem assistant library director. “We’re not selling them off. We’re just letting them naturally die out.”