An all-digital public
library was opened on 14 September, 2013, as officials in Bexar County, Texas, celebrate the
opening of the BiblioTech library. The facility offers about 10,000 free
e-books for the 1.7 million residents of the county, which includes San Antonio
On its website, the Bexar County BiblioTech library explains how its patrons can access
free eBooks and audio books. To read an eBook on their own device, users must
have the 3M Cloud Library app, which they can link to their library card.
The app includes a
countdown of days a reader has to finish a book — starting with 14 days,
according to My San Antonio.
The library has a
physical presence, as well, with 600 e-readers and 48 computer stations, in
addition to laptops and tablets. People can also come for things like kids'
story time and computer classes, according to the library's website.
A county official
compared the concept to an Apple store, in a report on the library's plans by NPR's Reema Khrais in
January.
And Reema reported
that the idea of a bookless library has been tried before — perhaps a bit too
early. That was in 2002, when Arizona's Santa Rosa Branch Library went
digital-only.
"Years later,
however, residents — fatigued by the electronics — requested that actual books
be added to the collection, and today, enjoy a full-access library with
computers," Reema said.
Sarah Houghton,
a.k.a. the tech-savvy blogger Librarian in Black,
who directs the San Rafael Public Library in California, told Reema that it
will take more than 100 years before all libraries are paperless. But she added
that 10 to 20 percent of libraries could go bookless in the next decade.
Some libraries have
struggled to adapt to an era of digital options and budget cuts. In the
Washington, D.C., region, the Fairfax County (Va.) library system's decision to
destroy a reported 250,000 books drew the ire of residents — and an editorial
from The
Washington Post.
Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/14/222442870/bookless-public-library-opens-in-texas
