Render Posted January 16, 2013 #1 Share Posted January 16, 2013 If your idea of a library is row upon row of nicely shelved hardcovers, then you'll be in for a surprise when a planned new library in San Antonio opens this fall. "Think of an Apple store," Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says while explaining the layout of the new library, BiblioTech. In keeping with technological advances, the county will house a library of neatly arranged LCD screens and gadgets instead of the traditional banquet of dog-eared print and paper books. The public library will be one of the first digital-only libraries of its kind. With 50 computer terminals and a stock of laptops and tablets on-site, the building will also offer an array of preloaded e-readers available for the card-carrying customer to take home. "The library is a chance to expand the scope of opportunities for people to learn technology," Wolff explains. "The world is changing." http://www.npr.org/2013/01/15/169412670/a-new-chapter-a-launch-of-the-bookless-library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asadora Posted January 16, 2013 #2 Share Posted January 16, 2013 I suppose the 'end of the world' looters will have a reason to go to the library. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted January 16, 2013 #3 Share Posted January 16, 2013 This is probably the wave of the future... but I still like the feel of a REAL book in my hands... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questionmark Posted January 16, 2013 #4 Share Posted January 16, 2013 While I will really miss the smell, the touch and the feel of a real book I have to confess that I am reading more and more on the tablet and computer screen, so I guess that is the future. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted January 16, 2013 #5 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Another advantage to a real book is that while browsing to find something to read... The cover, or something physical about the book/binding will catch your eye and you will read something you might not have ever read before... With a digital "book", you are much more likely to just get the book that you were looking for at the time - less serendipitous discoveries... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beckys_Mom Posted January 16, 2013 #6 Share Posted January 16, 2013 While I will really miss the smell, the touch and the feel of a real book I have to confess that I am reading more and more on the tablet and computer screen, so I guess that is the future. Yes because we are living in a digital age.. More people tend to lean on the tablets for reading as many books as they can.. It seems handy At present though, my daughter still is book mad..She loves the idea going off to her book fair and reading.. I'd say in years to come, she may go with the times .. My dad however grew up with nothing but books.. He spent most of his life reading and had us doing the same.. I don't think he would reach for the tablet at any time soon though.. I think he is stuck in his old ways of hoking out a good book and reading it... He used to educate us when we were small with book from all sorts of subjects ( Geography, science, history etc ) .. He always said - Best way to get educated is to read books .. ... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE MATRIX Posted January 17, 2013 #7 Share Posted January 17, 2013 (edited) Feel sorry for the young boys. Without books and magazines just makes it harder for them to hide their playboys and penthouse magazines in. Edited January 17, 2013 by THE MATRIX 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paracelse Posted January 17, 2013 #8 Share Posted January 17, 2013 (edited) It's going to be difficult to put bookmarks on certain pages and underline some elements of the book for research purposes... or have someone clean screens after each readers..... not mention another thing. How to take the book home? Even worse! Imagine for a second going to the library. You check out the book you going to read placing it on your tablet. The orignal copy is still at the library but you have yours to read at home. You come back 2 months later and a grumpy library lady (somehow libraries always have a grumpy lady hidden somewhere) and she comes to you and says: You are a month overdue on the book return... no ma'am it's still here I saw it.. no you took it... no it's here no you took it ... ad nauseum Forgot to say.. hope it's not become a trend to fast... I'm a rare book dealer and I would be out of business. Edited January 17, 2013 by Paracelse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+and-then Posted January 17, 2013 #9 Share Posted January 17, 2013 It's going to be difficult to put bookmarks on certain pages and underline some elements of the book for research purposes... or have someone clean screens after each readers..... not mention another thing. How to take the book home? Even worse! Imagine for a second going to the library. You check out the book you going to read placing it on your tablet. The orignal copy is still at the library but you have yours to read at home. You come back 2 months later and a grumpy library lady (somehow libraries always have a grumpy lady hidden somewhere) and she comes to you and says: You are a month overdue on the book return... no ma'am it's still here I saw it.. no you took it... no it's here no you took it ... ad nauseum Forgot to say.. hope it's not become a trend to fast... I'm a rare book dealer and I would be out of business. I think the experience of savoring books, the rare book especially, will always be there. If anything, it might boost your business in years to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drayno Posted January 17, 2013 #10 Share Posted January 17, 2013 My dad recently read The Hobbit on my mom's Kindle, and he barely reads any more. While I think it's cool you can store numerous books and download books on these devices, I'm not ready for that leap quite yet. I have a library in the downstairs of my house and a library in my room. I love books too much to go virtual just yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidhead Posted January 17, 2013 #11 Share Posted January 17, 2013 Computer technology doesn't exceed the old. The old way is the safe way. Just the other day I walked into a gas station to purchase gasoline for my truck. The computers were down. I had cash. Everybody else around had plastic cards and were swearing. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orcseeker Posted January 17, 2013 #12 Share Posted January 17, 2013 I hate reading books off a screen. Anything with large amounts of text I very much prefer reading off a physical copy rather than staring at a screen for extended periods of time. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted January 17, 2013 #13 Share Posted January 17, 2013 I must confess that I do own a 'Nook' (similar to Kindle), and I do use it from time to time, but only in places where I can not take a book (like at work on the night shift - books are frowned upon but a 'Nook' is easier to get out of the bosses sight )... Plus I can download schematics, network diagrams and tech manuals on my Nook and have it as a very handy reference tool for trouble shooting systems... So I do like the devices, just not crazy about the idea of an actual physical library for these systems... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beckys_Mom Posted January 17, 2013 #14 Share Posted January 17, 2013 Computer technology doesn't exceed the old. The old way is the safe way. Just the other day I walked into a gas station to purchase gasoline for my truck. The computers were down. I had cash. Everybody else around had plastic cards and were swearing. Did any of them try to leg it out of there before the computers went back up again and they got free gas ? lol I kid.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonecrusher Posted January 17, 2013 #15 Share Posted January 17, 2013 (edited) Grrrr.. What sacrilege and heresy... Well it looks like all the literature is going to be stored on floppy disks. I blame those pesky kids with their gigabytes,megabytes and OMG's. It's their fault they have ostracised us readers. I for one isn't a happy bunny and we should start some kind of campaign to save the printed format. If WH Smith ever goes into adminsteration I'll be wearing a black armband. It's the Luddite in me that's making me seethe inside. Edited January 17, 2013 by Medium Brown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_dreamer Posted January 17, 2013 #16 Share Posted January 17, 2013 (edited) I think there will always be a demand for good or classic paper books. Some are quite collectible and attractive, especially old expensive antique books with fancy binding and illustrations. I'm guessing quite a few of the e-books are filler (mediocre novels, technical books that always being revised). I have read a few books online though. It would be nice to have access to electronic reference material if I were a doctor or lawyer. Edited January 17, 2013 by little_dreamer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis914 Posted January 17, 2013 #17 Share Posted January 17, 2013 I think there will always be a demand for good or classic paper books. Some are quite collectible and attractive, especially old expensive antique books with fancy binding and illustrations. I'm guessing quite a few of the e-books are filler (mediocre novels, technical books that always being revised). I have read a few books online though. It would be nice to have access to electronic reference material if I were a doctor or lawyer. You said it... I don't think books are going anywhere soon. I couldn't stand thinking about old books being recycled or burned (Fahrenheit 451 come to mind?)... One, there's far too many of them to sit there and scan them all into digital format and two, the rare books and materials that are in archives probably wouldn't stand up to being scanned anyway so they will be well kept. Also, a book is far easier on the eyes than looking at a computer screen for the time it takes to read. At our college library, we just have a computer lab and reference area in thinking that ebooks/ejournals could be used for research and online books and classes be used on them. It works out for the most part (whenever students aren't on Facebook) in that students have a central place to come and do their classwork in a quiet environment. I saw someone mention the grumpy old lady librarian... well, I'm no lady but grump and old, yes... and I do keep the tradition of shushing loud students and reminding of overdue materials here at our college library. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paracelse Posted January 19, 2013 #18 Share Posted January 19, 2013 I wish my customer could read the thread and buy some books from me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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