Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
The only thing I need from a public library is the ability to check out ebooks and audiobooks from the comfort of my home or mobile device. The rest of their services are irrelevant to me.
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I see public access as making resources available to those who cannot afford those resources on their own. My wife, for example, grew up in abject poverty on a dry-land farm and cattle ranch in the Texas panhandle. Her school class had 9 members, so you can imagine that there was no library. A bookmobile came through about once a month to the school and she was able to check out an armload of books to take home to read. Her family could never afford to buy books, nor was there a local source, and a monthly library fee might not have been met, had there been a library within driving distance.
Books saved her from economic obscurity. She read everything she could, made it to college after borrowing heavily for tuition, and came out with a PhD after some incredible hardships and sacrifice. To this day, she says it was the availability of free books that gave her the head start over her non-reading classmates.
Electronic book availability is fantastic, but you have to have some means of reading them. Not everyone can afford a computer or eReader. Our rural library purchased two eReaders that can be checked out, but at $160 each and a $2.00 per day 'rental' fee, it's not for everyone. How fragile are eReaders in the hands of children or renters? Will the $2 fee cover replacement if/when they wear out or are damaged? Dunno.
