The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 50, December 12, 2004, Article 5

PUBLIC LIBRARIES STOCKING ELECTRONIC BOOKS

  From a December 9 New York Times article: "The newest books 
  in the New York Public Library don't take up any shelf space. 
  They are electronic books - 3,000 titles' worth - and the 
  library's 1.8 million cardholders can point and click 
  through the collection at www.nypl.org, choosing from among 
  best sellers, nonfiction, romance novels and self-help guides. 
  Patrons borrow them for set periods, downloading them for 
  reading on a computer, a hand-held organizer or other device 
  using free reader software. When they are due, the files are
  automatically locked out - no matter what hardware they are
  on - and returned to circulation, eliminating late fees. 
  In the first eight days of operation in early November, and 
  with little fanfare, the library's cardholders - from New York
  City and New York state and, increasingly, from elsewhere - 
  checked out more than 1,000 digital books and put another 400 
  on waiting lists (the library has a limited number of licenses
  for each book). 

  E-books are only one way that libraries are laying claim to a
  massive online public as their newest service audience. The 
  institutions are breaking free from the limitations of physical 
  location by making many kinds of materials and services 
  available at all times to patrons who are both cardholders 
  and Web surfers, whether they are homebound in the neighborhood
  or halfway around the world."

  "Library e-books are not new - netLibrary, an online-only 
  e-book collection for libraries, has operated since 1998 - 
  but the New York Public Library decided to wait for software 
  that would let users read materials on hand-held devices, 
  freeing them from computers. 

  "The key was portability," said Michael Ciccone, who heads 
  acquisitions at the library. "It needs to be a book-like 
  experience."

  E-books' short history has already begun to yield some 
  lessons. At the Cleveland Public Library, Patricia Lowrey,
  head of technical services, thought technical manuals and 
  business guides would be in greatest demand. 

  "We were dead wrong on that," Ms. Lowrey said. "There are
   a lot of closet romance readers in cyberspace."

  She saw patrons check out the same kinds of materials 
  rotating in the physical collection. The e-books librarians
  like best, according to Ms. Lowrey, are the digitized guides
  and workbooks for standardized tests, which in printed form
  are notorious for deteriorating quickly or disappearing 
  altogether." 

  To read the full article, see: Full Article

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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