E-books and Libraries

[alanajoli]

Given the amount of library reading I do, I know that libraries in my area have a long way to go to keep up with the type of reading that I do digitally. It's no problem since I still like print, but there are plenty of books I'd rather carry around digitally. Recently, I actually ended up purchasing a book I had out on Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Comments

[cerebralpaladin]

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the legacy publishers are often crazy, and if they could ban ordinary hard-copy libraries, they mostly would, even though that would be destructive. On the other hand, the trouble with e-books in libraries is that it really points out the lack of scarcity. Why buy any books in e-book format if you can get them from the library in e-book format from the privacy of your own home, whenever you like? You can gate them in various ways (only one person can have this book available at a time), but those are inherently artificial and frustrating with e-books--it's obvious that "the copy" isn't actually checked out. As e-books become the standard and hard-copy books the exception, which appears inevitable, I think figuring out how libraries ought to work will become increasingly complicated and challenging.

[alanajoli]

I agree that libraries have a lot of figuring out where they fit in the digital world. What encourages me about that is how much I saw librarians thinking about those issues while I was working in a library (and on a listserv or two). In fact, I think the people working in libraries (some of them, at least) are more on the ball trying to keep up with innovations and change than many of the traditional publishers