MLIS7505 Maymester Group,
This morning NPR Morning Edition aired a story about libraries struggling to deal with eBooks. It summarizes many of the pros and cons I've found in the literature regarding public libraries offering eBooks and eReaders.
Link:
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/29/153900929/libraries-grapple-with-the-downside-of-e-books
Thank you for posting this--I try to keep up with NPR book discussions of all kinds, and I missed this one due to Maymester! :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Amos. This does neatly summarize many of the pros and cons of library e-books. I think Bradford makes an good point when he says that e-books could free up space for other activities to take place in libraries. Still, that seems a ways off.
ReplyDeleteRight now, the library e-book collections that I have seen are very spotty and fairly small. If a library had a print collection that was the same as some of the e-book collections I have seen, I think users would be very unhappy. Another important point that Bradford makes is that libraries are only licensing e-books, not buying them. As with other situations where offering online items has meant licensing content rather than buying it (Netflix streaming, libraries buying online databases), the result is spotty and frequently-changing collections.