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By David Rothman

Wales bookshopCould library e-books make some kids feel more comfortable than the paper variety? Well, consider We can’t afford to use libraries, children think, a news item from Wales. icWales reports: “The National Marketing Strategy survey for libraries in Wales found many children believed they had to pay to borrow books. Asked how they would sell libraries many primary and secondary pupils told researchers they would try a ‘buy one get one free’ offer, researcher Chris Hillier said.”

So how could e-books and the right hardware—such as OLPC-style machines—help? Well, children could enjoy library services from school and home and try out e-books and maybe even be tempted to read p-library books, too. Oh, and actually, students are right in one way in associating libraries with fees. Can anyone say the F word—fines? It’s one reason why low-income families everywhere don’t use libraries as much as they should, and I can empathize, given the hefty fines I accumulate at times because I’m just so damned tempted by so many books. E-books, on the other hand, expire automatically.

E-books and the joys of ownership

One wrinkle I’d love to see libraries everywhere have: Ways for people to keep at least some of the library e-books they borrow. Never underestimate the value of ownership in encouraging readers to grow closer to books. Of course, DRM typically does just the opposite—since you never know when you’ll lose access to your purchase. The next item I post, by the way, will be a DRM horror story, to which I’ll link from here once it’s up.

The photo: Perhaps revealingly, I couldn’t find any really good Creative Commons-licensed images from Wales libraries on Flickr when I did a quick search, but I loved this one taken in a second-hand bookshop.

(Article found via LISNews.)

 
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