The Great Equalizer

[Giggleton]

If I was setting out to build a paper book library, I would just buy one of those print on demand machines and then print out books for people as they wanted them...

ereaders will eventually be so "cheap" that our cereal boxes will be printed on eink, to entertain the kids while they load up on their morning carbs... At that point everyone will have an ereader whether they want one or not, the question then becomes one of access to the information...

[fjtorres]

Access to a library by itself is pretty much meaningless as a social equalizer because the people who would (theoretically) benefit the most from pbook access are also the people who (in reality) most deprecate the value of literacy.
The people who most value libraries and constitute the bulk of the user base are firmly planted in the middle class and value literacy enough that the cost of a reader, by itself, would not be a barrier to adoption.
More than reader price, the biggest obstacles to reader adoption as literacy-promoters are their connectivity requirements (which makes most readers into PC peripherals--and PC adoption has levelled off at 45% of households) and their design focus on recreational reading as their primary mission.

In that aspect, as in so many others, Kindles are both the best and the worst that current tech has to offer.

(Shrug)
It's early in the ebook era.

Once the low hanging fruit of the recreational reading market has been properly addessed, which it hasn't, the survivng vendors and the next wave of aspirants will turn their focus to academia, k-12, and literacy promotion as market extenders.

At that point ebooks will have a shot at addressing the literacy promotion function that libraries, radio, tv, and PCs have all in turn tried to perform and all have fallen short of achieving despite grandiose early promises.
This time it might even work.
But I wouldn't hold my breath.

"You can lead a horse..." and all that.

[elizilla]

I too have lived much of my life in places with no library. My junior high school library was done in a "protect the books" style. I rarely had access, though I could see through the windows that there were a lot of books in there. The high school library had very little in it, though the librarian encouraged us to use it well. There was no city library. Libraries in other towns were far away and cost money. There were NEVER enough books in my world. And I was a kid whose parents taught me to read early, and strongly encouraged me to devour what books I did have. I remember loving the first day of school, because they give you a whole stack of new textbooks. But by a few weeks into the term they were used up, and now what?

The WWW wasn't invented until I was in my 20s. And I didn't have my own computer until around that time.

It's fabulous being a grownup, living in a place with a big library, and having the transportation to get there easily. But now that I have the internet, I could also live without that library. And I don't have the hours and hours to read, that I had as a kid, so I don't consume books like I once did. My current level of library access is wasted on me. I wish I could give it to my younger self.

[RDaneel54]

In my life I've found that people are either readers or they are not.

The most important factor is the encouragement of reading for enjoyment as well as for learning.

This needs to be done in a child's formative years, by parents, other family members, family friends and teachers. My two granddaughters live in a house where books are in every room. Mother and father read to them; the oldest, at seven, is reading on her own. She has probably read 15 - 20 books this summer, long ones. She's read up to book 11 or 12 of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events in the last couple of months.

I have given both parents an ereader, one a Sony 505, the other a Kindle 3. (Amazingly, they are able to live together) These are a factor, minor, in the family's reading environment. Used books, friends, the library etc. are much larger factors in the children's reading environment.

The oldest is also very computer literate, but dedicates an hour every evening to reading. I have sat with her and also read during that hour. I find it amazing.

So, my conclusion, ereaders at this time are a help but not the revolutionary equalizer, yet.

[covfam]

I grew up poor (not now days cable tv, 2 tv's and game consoles poor) but my patrents drove a rusted out old for econoline van in the 70's with 1 black and white tv that was an onld hand me down and use a huge antenae and all my cloths and our furniture was hand me downs.
We lived in the cascade mountains and our nearest library was 40 minutes drive and $10 per person membership fee.
My great exposure to reading wasnt the library but my dad working over time so that he could go down to the nearest used book store and get 4-5 books a month and by the time that i moved out dad had a library of over 500 books, these days the lack of reading isnt because they cant afford it.. its about priorities.

[Andrew H.]

I don't think that libraries are - or were supposed to be - the great equalizer. Probably publicly funded education is the greatest equalizer (although nothing can equal being born with $300 million...). The point of publicly funded education was to make available to everyone the type of education that only the wealthy and upper middle class could afford.

I don't think that was ever the main point of libraries, as they fairly quickly amassed a quantity of books that far exceeded what any private individual would own...but you still needed a certain level of literacy to read them. I think the point of libraries was more to make available a large number of books to everyone, rich and poor.

[amward]

Originally Posted by Phogg

That would be "The older people probably are just not aware of things like mobileread and Project Gutenberg, and ebooks from libraries."

Today children are being made aware of these resources in the schools.

Not where I live, quite a few young peopleI know had never heard of an ereader till I got mine and the few people I know who have one are 50+.

[JeremyR]

Not everyone has a library, though. Hellmark summed it up, as I actually live in the same city (St. Louis).

And the fee to join one is approaching that of an e-reader. Usually $50-60 a year.

By contrast though, when I just went to college in Florida, the County library system there was happy to give me a library card for free.

[taming]

It's been awhile since I lived in St. Louis, so I thought I'd check the St. Louis Public Library website. A library card for the St. Louis Public Library is free if you live, work, or go to school in the City of St. Louis or in the regions covered by about a dozen reciprocating libraries. This does not speak to the issue of library services in Lincoln County, Mo.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Last night my mrs claimed that printed books have always been the "great equalizer" since everyone had access to them via their local public library and since most book readers cost $100 or more electronic books are not available to everyone. What is your view on the matter?

Well, I would modify the statement by deleting "via their public library" as redundant, then agree with what's left, and say it was probably incontrovertible ?

Everyone can get hands on a book - friends, neighbours, school, thrift/charity shops, as well as libraries. You can borrow them, buy them, look over someoner's shoulder, get left them in a will,grab them out of skips.........

In fact beg, borrow, steal - or buy.......... or inherit.

[ In the UK we are fortunate to have "free" national libraries - untrue, of course, we pay for them via taxes, but that's right and reasonable, and makes them available to people on low/no incomes (although our present "semi-tea party government are putting the squeeze on local councils £wise, leading to some attempted cuts and reductions. As we speak, being challenged in the courts as illegal, with a decent chance of success. )]

All this equals access by everyone, surely, depending on your circumstances.

Whereas the high-tech version is simply nowhere near as accessible to a huge number of people, nor as versatile. Nor are they about in anywhere near enough numbers - AND , I hate to bring this up really, many times more dangerous, wasteful and expensive in resources as the book.

Now, after all that, I wouldn't be without mine, and I'm fortunate to be able to have one - but the book has a very impressive CV, and was pretty much ideal straight out of the box !

Oh, yes......... and you can throw it, sit on it, get it wet, play table-tennis/frisbee/hit flies and savage dogs with it, use it as insulation/fire on very cold days,use as body armour against various forms of corporal punishment or sport, like protect kicked shins at soccer.... and press flowers in it.
And do a heck of a lot more with it, I 'spect, but I'm running out of time !

Time to go in a dark room with cucumber slices over my eyes.........

[Asawi]

Libraries do serve as equalizers. Maybe not "the great equalizer", but still...

This goes both for paper books and eBooks. The eBook has actually led to more "equalization" over here, since a library online is way more accessible than going to a physical library to check out a physical book.

People read the books on different devices. The price of eReaders is brought up, but when I have been using public transport in US areas where only, let's call them "Not so well off people" use public transport (them and the probably crazy tourist lady...) have phones that would work for eBook reading (or listening to audio books). (Way better phones than I have, buy the way... kind of amazes me how they can afford them, but that's another topic...)

I don't know how people use their libraries in USA, but over here they sure work as equalizers. Not only do they give access to books, but IF you are able to visit a library you are likely to meat many different kind of people that you may not come across otherwise, because you really don't have anything else in common.

[jbcohen]

To sum up this conversation:

1) Public Libraries are not always the "great equalizer" simply because they are not always available to everyone;
2) Frequently the annual cost of the public library plus the cost of gas to get you back and forth is approaching the cost of the electronic reader and in the near future the library will cost more than the reader will;
3) Most often public libraries do not have an adequate collection for their patrons no matter what the cost is;

(I can certainly see this one as I have two public libraries available to me, one is so ham fisted they can't tell what they have and what they don't and the other simply never has anything worth readng).

4) The electronic book market is not real mature at this point and presents a lot of problems and bariers, in the future one can expect better methods of obtaining books.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by taming

It's been awhile since I lived in St. Louis, so I thought I'd check the St. Louis Public Library website. A library card for the St. Louis Public Library is free if you live, work, or go to school in the City of St. Louis or in the regions covered by about a dozen reciprocating libraries. This does not speak to the issue of library services in Lincoln County, Mo.

Still quite easy to be in the St Louis area and not be covered as part of the "reciprocal libraries". Basically you have to live in St Louis city, county, or in St Charles. The St Louis region is formed of several counties.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by jamhassan

in us each children get free education .

Only in theory.
What everybody gets, by law, is *access* to a free education.
Doesn't speak to the quality of the service.
Or how free (monetarilly speaking) it really is.

Truancy laws enforce attendance but nobody can enforce attention. Parental habits and involvement matter a *lot*.

There simply is a lot more to getting an education than attendance and coursework.

The most worrying trend in the modern US is that the most literate and educated parents work, personally, the hardest to ensure their children make the most of the available resources, free or not, and the... rest... leave it to outside forces.

As always, TINSTAAFL...

[taming]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Still quite easy to be in the St Louis area and not be covered as part of the "reciprocal libraries". Basically you have to live in St Louis city, county, or in St Charles. The St Louis region is formed of several counties.

Yes. There are rural areas, suburban areas, and urban areas, and access is not the same in all parts of Missouri (or any other state). The person I responded to said he lived in "the same city (St. Louis)" not I live near the City of St. Louis (three counties over).