Is it time to stop the presses?It seems that every week I report in this newsletter about more and more genealogy books that are being converted to electronic format. Sure, old books have been digitized for several years now. However, even new books are now appearing as electronic publications. The Kindle, Nook, and other e-book readers are hot items these days. Now the world's first completely paperless public library is scheduled to open this summer in San Antonio, Texas.
The so-called BiblioTech is a low-cost project with big ambitions. It will have 100 e-readers on loan, and dozens of screens where the public will be able to browse, study, and learn digital skills. However it's likely most users will access BiblioTech's initial holding of 10,000 digital titles from the comfort of their homes, way out in the Texas hinterland.
The new, all-digital library gained impetus from the success of the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) bookless engineering school library which opened three years ago, the first paperless academic library.
You can read a lot more about this new library in an article by Bill Hicks in the BBC web site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22160990.
Source:
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/05/are-digital-libraries-going-to-replace-traditional-books.html