eBooks for an iCulture

To start with, I do not think that the traditional idea of a book will ever leave us. There is something about holding a book in your hands, smelling it, flipping the pages, being able to flip at will to various parts of the book that will always be in demand.

I have to say though, I love eBooks. The free Kindle application for my iPod has been amazing for me. The simplicity of one click shopping for books on amazon with wireless delivery in just seconds, all from the comfort from my bed on a lazy Sunday morning is kind of amazing. And with fewer people reporting reading books today than they did twenty years ago, any form of publishing that saves money is probably a welcome thing for book publishers and not having to pay for the physical publishing of a book is sure to save money. I also think that ebooks from libraries are an interesting and welcome development. Although I personally could not figure out how to download and read the book I wanted from the library, smarter people than I are able to do this. Heck, my roommate told me the other day that she has a bunch of ebooks checked out from the library at the moment. I was a bit amazed at her (1) reading a book, (2) thinking of the library instead of just going to Borders, and (3) being on it enough to download books from the library's website. I'm sure this is my library influence shining through onto her. The more methods libraries have for reaching out to people and promoting reading the better, and the ebook adds another facet of library service.

I think there is another important aspect of the digital book phenomenon, the self publishers out there. Before, if you wanted to get your work published you had to submit it to a publisher, where more than likely it would be rejected. Then the truely ambitious could pay to have the book published themselves. Now though, anyone can publish their own work on the internet, they can even make it easily available to other people using amazon and their kindle application. There is something gratifying, a bigger sense of accomplishment is realized when people (besides your mother) read something that you have slaved away at creating, self publishing via ebooks is a way to fulfill this.

There is also the whole phenomenon of fanfiction. I know so many people who read and write fanfiction, its amazing. Without the internet and the freedom to publish just about anything on the internet, fanfiction just wouldn't be the same. I think its great that so many young people have the motivation and the opportunity of writing stories that other people will read. Another example of the great things the internet provides for us.

So I'm a fan of eBooks.

I'm a bigger fan of real books.

REFELCTIONS-A YEAR AS A SLIS STUDENT

Last summer, while cruising around on a boat on Flathead Lake our host heard that I was going to school to become a librarian. "Aren't libraries on the way out?" he asked me. At the time, honestly, I didn't really know. They could have been. I was stuck in a rut, had been told I'd love the library science field, and thought "why the heck not?" So I applied to the program and was accepted.

So here I was, faced with this man telling me libraries were on the way out and I didn't have a clue how to respond. I think I probably mumbled something about "ugh, lots of other things to do with a MLIS" and then feigned sea sickness.

Libraries are not, and really, should never be on the way out. Libraries have been around since way way back in the B.C days and they should continue to be with us until whatever comes next. We are the keepers, finders, and sharers of information and people do now and always will need that information.

With the recent doom and gloom news about libraries and funding, particularly in Indianapolis, its been rough. The prospects of actually getting a job in a library are looking less and less likely and it seems more and more likely that for the near future I will have to continue being mindless, bored drone in the silent law office where I work. But still, it could be worse I suppose.


Bad economy, falling property values, property tax caps, cut funding--we've arrived at the perfect storm of factors working against the success of the public library system. But we've also arrived at record usage of the library system (here in Indianapolis at least). In tough times people turn more and more frequently to the library to fulfill their information (and entertainment) needs. Heck, my roommate has library books in the living room right now (this alarms me a bit as she once had me check her out a book, then proceeded to lose it. The next thing I know the library has stuck a debt collector on me looking for payment for the lost book) and she has even managed to check out audio books from IMCPL's website! I'm amazed at both her technical ingenuity and the library for having audio books available to download!

Anyway, times are changing. The needs of the library patron are changing. The budget available to the library is changing. Library/web/internet/life 2.0 is upon us (I do not really know what this means) and we need to change, become librarian 2.0's. It is up to us to meet these changes in innovative and inventive ways, and I think we will. Its fun to think that we all are the future of libraries, because I think everyone is sort of fabulous. Listening to everyone's thoughts and ideas each week make me think that the future of libraries is a good one.

Its amazing how often the library seems to come up on a daily basis. I don't know if its because people know that I am a library student or because people use and like the library a lot, but whenever it does come up I get a little tinge of pride about what I get to be a part of both now and in the future evolution libraries are sure to undertake.

If I return to Montana this summer and have another run in with the "libraries are on their way out" man, I will have a better response to him this time.