Still digesting the post from Tim Spaulding on the threat of E-Books and libraries. While E-Books have been around for over a decade, they are now starting to gain traction as better readers come out. Tim brings up some wonderful issues to think about, and I really wonder where libraries will fall in this mess.
I researched the history of public libraries in America while at UNC-Chapel Hill. Most libraries came about from the influence of women's reading groups and the funding of Carnegie Libraries. After they became staples in so many communities, other communities wanted their own, and things grew from there. The whole idea was based on the ability to lend materials to one another. This new digital age of text bypasses that ability, unless people clamor for that ability again (within some sort of reason to protect the rights of the writer... the heck with the publishers).
Another side issue that Tim and I discussed at our WVLA conference... after several beers was the future of publishing books and what format writing will take. We already have tweets, and the idea of a novel or book length is completely a creation of the modern printing and publishing industry. Think about serial writers like Dickens. Couldn't writers move towards that avenue, or something completely different?
In the issues that Tim brings up, I can't help but think the real issue in the future won't be ownership, but some sort of lease to access. This is akin to what our library has now with its Netlibrary E-Audiobook collection. We don't "own" the books, we just pay for annual access to them.
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