Catching on to e-books

More and more librarians are experiencing the pleasures of e-books and thinking about how they can be integrated into the library world. In his blog "The Civil Librarian" Chris Freeman writes about downloading a recently discovered title to his iPhone and having it available almost immediately and completely without cost. Why not have this service available in libraries, he asks. Why not indeed? Many of the classics read by high school and college students are freely available online. Instead of buying multiple copies, a library could lend out e-book readers and give directions for downloading the book. That's quite a saving of space and budget, although the cost-benefit calculations are still to be made. There are issues of the durability of e-book readers and their cost. Many library users, even teens and tweens, have their own e-book readers so all they need is a little help in locating texts. It's something for all librarians to consider.