

The birth of the Kindle Tablet and the death of the public library - kennjason
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/97335-the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library

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tjr
I was at a university library in St. Louis and was surprised to find shelves
and shelves and shelves of books pertaining to the history of railroads. I had
no idea that so many volumes had been written on this topic; I seriously doubt
that all of these (possibly even any of these) are available as Kindle ebooks.

For that matter, many of the books in my own personal collection are still in
print as paper books, but not available as ebooks.

I'm not sure how public libraries will continue to survive, but I'm not
entirely sure how they are surviving now. It seems to me that the biggest
chunk of their business is lending recent pop fiction novels and providing
free internet access. But the point is, there is still lots of information
ostensibly accessible in libraries that is not available on the Kindle. It'd
be a shame if that information just vanished because people could get their
pop fiction for free from Amazon.

But maybe that's the difference between public libraries and university /
research libraries. Perhaps the two should merge, with the university
libraries (which are funded and needed by the universities) also servicing the
general public. The library at Cornell College operates this way.

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scotch_drinker
I don't see much in that article to support "the death of the public library"
hyperbole. It's easy to forget that $80 a year is a _LOT_ of money for most
people. When you are in technology, it's hard for you to understand how few
people still are in the world that don't have internet access or computers. I
was a member of a library advisory board in my city and the circulation rate
and number of checked out items continues to climb.

The ultimate death of the public library probably won't come from some advance
in technology but in the continued short-sightedness of local politicians who
continue to underserve the poor and lower classes of their communities.
Politicians see the libraries as easy ways to cut money from the budget,
ignoring the fact that people who can't afford a computer and always on
internet are the ones who need the library the most. In this day in age, it's
getting harder and harder to get a job without a computer. If the library goes
away, the unemployed poor are crippled.

The public library isn't just a place to get books. Just because you can get
unlimited books on the Kindle won't mean the library is useless and articles
like this only add to the fire that politicians use to justify decreasing
funding for public libraries.

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tjr
An important point! I wonder if it would be a good idea to separate provision
of free internet and computer services from provision of books? It seems
pretty obvious that free computer services should be a staple of society
today, regardless of what happens to collections of publicly-available books.

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trebor
Just because I own an ebook reader doesn't mean that I don't visit my library.
My budget will only take so many ebooks monthly—so, it's often cheaper to only
buy what I really need and get the rest from the library.

I'm mildly disappointed that it'll be LCD just because I find eInk to be the
coolest tech around.

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shoota
Did you read the article? They're suggesting that Amazon will open its ebook
library to Amazon Prime Accounts to check out books to read thus killing off
the public library.

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trebor
Did you read the "my budget..." bit? I don't pay $80/year for Prime membership
when I barely spend $80-100/year and use the free super-saver shipping. Paying
an extra $80/year is a total waste of money for me because I don't require my
books in 2 days (they get here almost that fast, however).

In addition, I still like the feeling of holding a REAL book. It lacks the
search features I love, yes, but it's simpler to reference without hogging
system resources, taking another device, or having to continually switch
between monitors/desktops.

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shoota
I suppose for you it doesn't make sense but for someone who owns a kindle,
paying $80 a year to get 2day shipping for any item regardless of price, a
library of video titles available for streaming and if the rumor is true a
library of relevant ebooks to read without driving to the library seems like
an extremely good value.

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tedunangst
Maybe the public library can survive by lowering their rental rate to zero,
too.

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dablya
You can rent books from your public library and read them on the kindle...

