Town to close library, open electronic center. Is this the future?

[condor]

I think they need to design a flexible use building that will allow them to make such changes in the future, but that it isn't time to abandon the physical content model quite yet.

[DixieGal]

This will be a huge savings on rent, utilities, and other expenses. I like it!

[VicLavigne]

Combine internet with the vast numbers of available e-books and it is a true library, even if it is virtual. The only unfortunate part is that there are so many books that have not yet been converted to digital format. This is sad, but resolvable. As a comparison, in the US there are still movies that are available in VHS but not DVD - but slowly getting fixed.....

[Giggleton]

Yes, a server with some ebooks is a library, Calibre is a library, mobileread actually does call itself a library. Why are these entities not lobbying for some federal funds then? If, in the future no one will be reading printed books, the purveyors of ebooks will become more important.

My local library has tons of content flowing through it on a daily basis, and I mean that literally It will probably be another decade before this change really starts to occur. When people with ereaders start buying them for their kids and what not, teaching them how to read with em.

[wannabee]

Paper books don't crash. So I expect them to outlast eBooks.

[VicLavigne]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Paper books don't crash. So I expect them to outlast eBooks.

Ahh, but digital copies of books can be backed up and saved against fatal crashes. Plus they take up less room. I expect my ebooks will last longer than my printed copies. I already have way more ebooks than I ever had printed books.

Vic

[wannabee]

Show me some technology to equal that

[DixieGal]

I love that image of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is beautiful!

But as libraries move into the digital age, those paper books and scrolls should be retained in museum-like libraries, such as the Library of Congress. Made digital, they would be instantly availablle to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

My own local library is a mausoleum. IF it happens to be open, and IF I absolutely must go there for my annual card renewal, there are people sitting at every computer console. No one is reading or browsing the stacks. Every morning of the week, craft classes are taught there. One day is knitting, the next is quilting, etc. Nobody is reading anything. To me, this already sounds like what is being proposed.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

My own local library is a mausoleum. IF it happens to be open, and IF I absolutely must go there for my annual card renewal, there are people sitting at every computer console. No one is reading or browsing the stacks. Every morning of the week, craft classes are taught there. One day is knitting, the next is quilting, etc. Nobody is reading anything. To me, this already sounds like what is being proposed.

Sounds more like a community center than it does a library. Maybe the two should be combined under the same government agency and one of the two facilities shut down to better utilize tax dollars.

[GeoffC]

In the UK

I cannot find the reference any more, but I recall reading a suggestion that a few libraries may close and re-locate to large supermarkets.....[unless I dreamt it!]

[jkeene]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Show me some technology to equal that

Exceptional, but the scrolls are a lonely survivor of their age. How much more was lost in the Library of Alexandria?

[Over]

Originally Posted by khalleron

You're kidding right?

2 million ebooks aren't enough for you?

No. We want variety. We want old books too. We want the other millions that are not in ebook form. The more, the higher the chance we'll find something we need/like.

[elcreative]

It was suggested in another thread as a possible solution to closing libraries and equally quickly refuted as being unlikely for a supermarket to host a free service competing with its own book retailing...

Originally Posted by GeoffC

In the UK

I cannot find the reference any more, but I recall reading a suggestion that a few libraries may close and re-locate to large supermarkets.....[unless I dreamt it!]

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by Over

No. We want variety. We want old books too. We want the other millions that are not in ebook form. The more, the higher the chance we'll find something we need/like.

Old books? Google Books has 2 million PD books in epub format.

My original comment was to a poster who complained that there were very few ebooks. If 2 million is very few, I'd like to see what many is.

What there aren't enough of, I will admit, is backlist books - those that are still in copyright but have fallen out of print.

There should be enough old books to satisfy anyone who likes old books.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Show me some technology to equal that

We needed the latest in computer technology to be able to read those, once we used the latest computer technology to find 'em.