Libraries in the Digital Age

 

Libraries in the Digital Age

With technology changing so fast can the libraries keep up?  Public and school libraries are changing the way they get books for their users and students. E-books are part of the new technology of the digital age.

At public libraries it is much easier to use e-books all you need is a library card and you can access any e-Book in their holdings by downloading it to reader. This makes it much easier than having to travel to the library also you don’t have to worry about returning the book and getting fines. You can download the e-book too your reader for a couple of weeks.

E-Books in schools are much harder. There are more rules involved when it comes to e-books in school libraries. When a school buys an e-Book they are not really buying it they are paying to use the book so they don’t have rights to book as they have hard bound books.  This brings us to the part were e-books cannot be lent out to other schools. So if you are going to Cuyamaca College for you studies you can view our e-books from home by logging in but, if you found a e-book at Grossmont College our sister college you would not be able to view it unless you were enrolled at this college as well. The only way is that you have to visit one of the college’s libraries and then you would be able to access both college e-book holdings.  EBSCO e-books can only be viewed by one person at a time. These e-books have more restrictions than Springer e-books. Springer e-Books are changing the way of e-books.  With Springer e-books you can download them, print them and even e-mail them without restriction.  Another problem is that not all books are offered in e-book form. A lot of classic readings required by teachers are not available in this format. In 2014 To Kill a Mockingbird was authorize to an e-book.  There are a lot more classic required for class reading.

Another problem that came up was that some of the class text books are being offered at e-books which is much cheaper to buy. but the teacher would not let her students  use it on an open book test. The teacher said because it was on an electronic device they could have access to the Internet.

There are some restrictions that need to be worked out but with technology changing so fast I believe that there will be e-books in the future.

 

 

 

Harris, Christopher. "Fact Or Fiction? Libraries Can Thrive In The Digital Age." Phi Delta Kappan 96.3 (2014): 20-25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.