After today’s  discussion about world libraries I thought it would be good idea to take a careful listen to a CBC Spark podcast by Carolyn Wood.

ebooks and libraries on CBC Spark 636.mp3

Here are a few points that I thought were interesting, but I recommend that you have a listen!

Carolyn Wood and her guests agree that It is time for publishers to change. The publishing world has over 100 years of history and has not changed since it was created. It has gone through very few format changes. This is very similar to the school library. Have they gone through many format changes in history?  The demands of ebooks have increased but publishers are still trying to cope with the changes. Libraries are trying to cope with the change as well!

Ebooks are growing fast. Faster than any other type of books. They used the Toronto public library as an example and stated that they circulated 1 million ebook titles.

The library experience has certainly changed for some people because they can go online from home and “check a book out” without ever having to step foot in the library. As discussed in our discussion groups, this is a  real benefit for some people, but people still need to be given the option of having the community connection with their library. The physical building of the library draws the community together.

The podcast continues to explain that Harper Collins books are capped at being circulated 26 times. After 26 times the book self destructs and the library has to buy a new copy.  For some ebooks it costs more money for libraries to buy them than it does for consumers. It is easy to understand why publishers are concerned and resistant because checking out an ebook from home is similar to going online to amazon.com and buying the book, except from the library it is free.  People are going to go with the free option!

Publishers need to make sure there still is incentive to purchase ebooks for retail prices. This would be obviously different for school libraries because the ebooks that are being bought for the school would not be normally be getting purchased to the same extent by students or parents.

Libraries provide access to information and knowledge and this will never go away. I never thought that libraries would disappear, but I think they will certainly be enhanced by ebooks, digital technologies, and merging libraries becoming global or world libraries.

Now with all of this being said,  our in class group discussion concluded that we will never get rid of the “real book” in our schools, but it would certainly be nice to provide students with as many different options as possible. I have never read an ebook before. I am going try “checking out” an ebook from the public library. I have used A-Z books in my class which are similar to ebooks. There are advantages because they can be displayed on the overhead projector and you pay a subscription to use the books. My students have never been that interested in them them.

Thanks to Janet for bringing in an example of a media enhanced book. I had never seen these before!  They are a form of the ebook. “AV2” is a integrated digital learning environment that pairs printed books with online content.  A code is entered online that brings up videos or information websites.  The books are expensive so I wont be expecting to see the library full of them yet!