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Don’t Run to the Library — Let the Library Come to You
Running to the library is not what it used to be. Now it could just mean a quick trip to your personal computer. That’s right, your computer.
Libraries are going online. And not just with their card catalogues. This is one of those things that you think of when you consider the promise of the Internet.
The New York Public Library now has an e-books site. According to the New York Times, the New York Public Library now has licenses available to allow you to download to your PC, laptop, hand-held, or other electronic device, 3,000 different titles. Subject areas range from the classics, to political treatises, to pulp fiction, romance, and science fiction.
The technology now exists to lock you out of the file when your “book” comes to be due. This is good for two reasons:
- No more late fees for you.
- The “book” can be immediately returned to circulation.
The set up is exactly like what you do now with a trip to the bricks and mortar library. You use your library card to check out a book. In a classical library, you would remove the physical copy from the building so they couldn’t check your book out to someone else. With this set up, they have one fewer license to allow the book to be downloaded. Since you can download the book to any device with a reader you can take the book with you anywhere — train, plane, boat, or automobile: it doesn’t matter at all. When you’re done, you return the book and can get more. With the new system, it doesn’t matter if you forget to take it back though. Your copy of the electronic book will expire and save you the trip.
MickC @ December 8, 2004
Interesting development. Tell me, am I alone in the world in preferring the physical object? I don’t know, I’ve played with a few readers, but nothing beats the feel, look and smell of a book. They strike me as one of the few things in the world that are just about perfectly designed for their purpose.
Not alone at all. I have a personal library of a few hundred volumes on topics ranging from science fiction to religion. Nothing beats holding it in your hand.
But, for those people (like me) who are much too busy to find time to go spend a couple of hours at the library, this makes for a wonderful alternative.