Moderator's note: Isabelle Fetherston, a reference librarian in central Florida, writes the valuable Senior Friendly Libraries Blog. - D.R. Could e-books someday be the new large "print" for older people in the U.S. and elsewhere? As a reference librarian, I speak with many who must struggle with regular print books, magazines and newspapers. Consider the ironies. The eyes of millions of retirees are failing just when these seniors finally have the time for leisure reading. Frustratingly, too, arthritis might prevent them from holding the heavier large-print editions. And those are far from the only problems here---the reason why e-books might be the solution...

Click to Continue   |     |  

In the 1890s, libraries were debating whether to provide fiction to their patrons. William Stevenson, the head librarian for the Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, went to great lengths to remove popular fiction titles from his library. "It is certainly not the function of the public library to foster the mind-weakening habit of novel-reading among the very classes---the uneducated, busy or idle---whom it is the duty of the public library to lift to a higher plane of thinking," he said. Horatio Alger tales weren't "high" enough for him. Even classics controversial in the 1890s During Stevenson's time, it was controversial for libraries to...

Click to Continue   |     |