Eli Neiburger, Associate Director at Ann Arbor District Library recently presented his views at the LJ/SLJ EBook Summit. He makes the case that because of the emergence of e-books and other pay per use online materials “Libraries are Screwed”. Eli’s view is that libraries remain invested in paper books, and that their primary function continues to be “owning and sharing” of local copies. The online delivery model makes ownership and physical lending of materials unnecessary. Borrowing of materials can be expected to decline greatly over the coming years, removing one of library’s primary reasons for existing.
You can view Mr. Neiburger’s remarks at the following URL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqAwj5ssU2c&feature=related
Eli Neiburger is not the only one who believes that libraries are not equipped to deal with new online materials, either the managing of their metadata, their distribution, or their long term stewardship.
A recent work titled The Data Deluge: Can Libraries Cope with E-Science? (http://bit.ly/9ySYTp) explores the problem of dealing with the massive data management needs of today’s scientific research. An outline of the books is linked to here, but I encourage you to take a look at the whole book.
In my talk with students last week, entitled “Dynamic Information Stewardship: New Stuff – New Packages – New Tasks, we discussed several new directions which libraries and librarians need to be taking to manage new kinds of information materials.
I would like to hear from the readers of this blog. As e-books and online materials develop, do you believe that “libraries are “screwed”? Do you think libraries are ready for the “Data Deluge”?
What changes to you think libraries need to make in order to address current and future digital information needs?
Peter Webster
Associate University Librarian, Information Technology Services.
Patrick Power Library, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, N.S.
Never underestimate the power of a book. The feel, the smell, the comfort of curling up in a wing-back chair, the just-one-chapter lure at bedtime. An e-book just doesn’t cut it.
Electronic data has a place, but let’s hope “Farhenheit 451” stays in the science fiction genre.
I’m actually a big fan of ebooks and have come to prefer this format over print because of the convenience and portability. I can curl up quite comfortably with my e-book reader :)Libraries are certainly making inroads when it comes to providing digital media downloads (feature I use frequently in the Halifax Public Libraries). I think more needs to be done to integrate digital media more fully into the regular library catalogue, rather than have them as separate units, but this is already happening.