E books coming to libraries

I have a friend who thinks books are passe. I am not of the same mind as I believe there will always be books in some form or another. Books have changed quite a lot since the first ones; technology is about to change the format again now that e-books are here. And libraries want to keep up.

The New Brunswick public libraries are planning to start offering e-books in the next few months to allow people access to more reading material in different formats.

There are more than two million library books in the various public libraries across the province, but the collection could jump a lot higher once e-books become available.

Tina Bourgeois, the regional director for libraries in the Albert-Westmorland-Kent Region, said people would eventually be able to download e-books from their home computer instead of visiting their local library branches.

Not sure exactly how that would work and neither do they yet.

Bourgeois said the libraries are getting more and more requests from patrons for e-books.

"Patrons will be go on and check them out and reserve them, if they are already checked out, like they can with any print material," she said.

Bourgeois said there are a lot of details still to work out on what can be offered and how people will be able to access it but she wants to make electronic books just as accessible as regular books.

When will Nova Scotia libraries get started on this I wonder.

Another library, sort of

As an addendum to our last post on wonderful libraries we have to add this one, which is not exactly a library but a Library Parking Garage in Kansas City, Missouri. Not in the same class as the old library interiors but still extraordinary. Note the titles of the books chosen, which are easier to read in the second view.

Those shown in the photo - from left to right -Tao Ie Ching by Lao Tsu, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughs, Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, A Green book which I can't make out, Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, and Truman by David McCullough. There are apparently 11 more on the streetside "shelf" to the left of the steps in the photo above.

The book spines, wich measure approximately 25 by 9 feet, are made of signboard mylar. The shelf showcases 22 titles reflecting a wide variety of reading interests as suggested by Kansas City readers and then selected by the Kansas City Library Board of Trustees.

For Librophiles

Here is a wonderful site that appeals to several of my (too many) interests.

Since I am trained as a Librarian and love books, and also have an interest in history, how could I not be intrigued by this post on Beautiful libraries which I came across a little while ago. It has taken me a while to get around to sharing it.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to do a grand tour of even some of these? My hat goes off to the intrepid compiler who gathered these photos, and the readers who suggested more. It's nice to see that the Parliamentary Library in Ottawa and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library made the grade.
I've been asking myself which I would pick as a favorite to visit if I was given an opportunity to. It's a difficult choice. I have already been to "The Long Room" at Trinity College Dublin, where they keep ( or used to ) The Book of Kells, and also the National Library of Ireland in Dublin so I could cross those off but as for the others, how would I choose? So I guess I won't, but I have to say I am partial to the ones with added art; the painted ceilings are wonderful although it might be distracting to read there! The Vatican Library is almost visually overwhelming.

At the end of this "curious expedition" into old libraries are some links to other sites on libraries and some excellent book suggestions. One that appeals is mentioned in the comments: The Library of Babel, by Jorge Luis Borges which is apparently out of print and not cheap second hand.

More...The Library of Babel is one of Borges' finest short fictions -- a meditation on the possible, the infinite, the nature of hope and the creation of meaning. The Library contains all possible books, all possible combinations of the 25 orthographic symbols in all possible languages, and therefore everything man is capable of knowing and expressing -- but it appears to have no order, no organization. It contains the true catalogue of the Library, as well as innumerable false catalogues, books proving the falsity of the false catalogue, and books proving the falsity of the true catalogue. Yet from chaos arises meaning: There is no combination of characters one can make . . . that the divine Library has not foreseen and that in one or more of its secret tongues does not hide a terrible significance. There is no syllable one can speak that is not filled with tenderness and terror, that is not, in one of those languages, the mighty name of a god

That intrigues. I'll have to watch for it at the annual book sale. Borges was once director of the Argentine National Library, something I didn't know until now, so I have learned much on my curious expedition. And this site offers many others!