From the ALA’s American Libraries magazine:
Area residents served by the Rockford (Ill.) Public Library are questioning a decision by the board of trustees to allocate 25.5% toward the purchase of ebooks for the year. That amount would equal $303,332 of the library’s $1.19 million total collection budget for FY2012.
Protesters, who included the local chapter of the NAACP, held a news conference at the main library on January 13 to voice their opposition, stating that the increasing shift toward digital media will leave behind traditional users and those without money or access to new technology.
Members of the community-based initiative Save Our Library (SOL) noted that a proposal in RPL’s draft August 2011 “Facilities and Digital Library Plan” recommended that the library strive for a 95/5 ratio of digital-to-print. “The library would only purchase print in the event that no digital version is available for a needed item,” the proposal states. Frank Novak, executive director of the library, said in the January 14 Rockford Register Star that the relevant memos and reports from him to trustees were never voted on and had not been made public until the January 13 news conference. “Those are things that I’ve looked at for the long term,” he told the Star, “what could happen in the long run.”
Why can’t libraries simply lend a fully charged digital device with eBook(s) on it? Library buys eBook. Library puts eBook on Kindle (example). Library lends Kindle. Library fines borrower who doesn’t return it on time. Sound familiar?
Consequence: no equity issues.
Idea: maybe Libraries need to commission the development and manufacture of a special eReader device that is both super cheap and useless when not returned to the library within a certain time.