The changing world of ebooks
Given: Patrons will increasingly use ebooks in the coming years.
What can librarians do to:
- Provide the titles they need (purchase outright, purchase-on-demand, provide changing content in the form of vendor packages such as ebrary)
- Ascertain what titles they need (solicit patron input, offer purchase-on-demand)
- Make ebooks easily accessible (for reading online or downloading, simplifying digital rights management, providing mobile apps)
- Provide hardware (loan equipment such as PCs, ebook readers, tablets; and perhaps provide pre-loaded content on these devices)
- Help them find the digital content already in the library’s collection (web-scale discovery layer, one-on-one or classroom instruction, pushing instructional content to patrons by electronic means such as email, social network locations, Twitter, RSS feeds)
- Promoting electronic publishing; publishing titles sponsored by libraries themselves; working with university publishers
Please bring your suggestions—what is your library doing, what should we be doing, what is in the works—for improving our service to patrons in this changing environment.
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