Just so it’s clear, the TeleRead blog runs many opinions, not all of them jibing with my own. I’ve encouraged Paul Biba, Chris Meadows and other regulars to speak their minds, and I’ll continue to do so. Even if you’re unequivocally pro-library, as I am, skepticism is valuable.
The author of the anti-library post that Paul pointed to is mostly wrong, but isn’t entirely off-target. I myself think local libraries could do much more than they are in the area of e-books, and one way would be to create well-stocked national e-collection to augment local ones. That is much of what my TeleRead proposal is about. It is also about blending in national collections with local libraries and schools and encouraging professional development among librarians and educators. I say collections, plural, because I see TeleRead sytems in many countries, not just the U.S.
Pub domain books not substitute
I love free public domain books, but they are no substitute for contemporary books, still under copyright, nor do I believe that modern literature can thrive with Creative Commons books alone. We still need p-books and provisions for royalties for writers. That means having people around to choose them for collections and help readers find what is appropriate for them. We’re talking librarians, in other words—whether the books be P or E.
As shown by usage statistics, U.S. libraries are heavily in demand, especially during this recession where many will rely on libraries for books and professional training materials and other items. Not all resources are available in E. In an era when some library systems may have to shut down branches, it would be a pity to de-Carnegie-ize the United States or any other country.
Detail: Librarians can’t make TeleRead happen. That is up to politicians, alas.
Related: Jeff Scott’s response to Paul. Jeff’s library system is part of an e-book consortium in the Phoenix area, which offers one of the country’s best electronic collections at the local level.
Contrary to my usual argumentative nature, I could not agree more with David here (Not to worry! I shall find something to oppose soon enough! ;-). While I can certainly say that I would like to see publishing as it is currently done go the way of the Dodo, I believe libraries are a wonderful thing.
I love e-books, but brick and mortar libraries are wonderful for a number of reasons beyond the books. The most important of which is that libraries are permanent archives of human knowledge. Who has read history and not lamented the burning of the Library of Alexandria? Would we not be so much better off today with all that lost knowledge? Multiple libraries mean redundancy: If one burns, all is not lost. Neither e-books nor the internet nor book stores can perform this function at present, and for various reasons, they may never be able to.
And what are we to do someday if there happens to be no electricity. I think I can safely assume we will never be without sunlight. The same cannot be said for fuel sources on this planet. E-books require power. Paper books do not.
So, until I and all the server farms run on solar power and have storage media that will last in excess of a century, there is no reason to get rid of paper repositories of speech.
Further, libraries provide other nice things like a quiet place to read or a place for students to learn and study together.
Finally, on the book store versus library front, it is book stores that are obsolete. A book store should be a room where one goes to select a print on demand title and pay cash to have it printed on the spot or where one returns to pick it up. Previews of the books should all be digital (that way copies will not be damaged or stained). Patrons should be able to have a selection of paper and font, and perhaps colour, and DRM and charge free digital copies should be included with every purchase (I may love a beautiful volume on my shelf, but that does not mean I do not want the same information on my phone or PDA when I am stuck in traffic). Books should only be stored in libraries, and book stores should be barred by law from guessing at customer demand and wasting tons of resources on that speculation.
Publishers are just printers after all, and printing is a service. They should be serving us for our money instead of trying to force us to buy what they think they can make the most profit on. The disappearance of the factory-based, one-size-fits all publishing industry should cause no one to grieve.
In short, libraries are the only places we should be able to go that have rows of shelved books. It is the old publishing model that needs to be scrapped for progress.