Libraries across the US are increasingly handling an onslaught of confused readers requesting librarians to tutor them on how to use their new e-readers and tablet computers, it has been observed. Libraries may shortly become a customer service department for a few large corporations, according to Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. Kahle addressed a panel session on the challenges faced by libraries due to e-books, at the recently concluded American Library Association's (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in San Diego.
According to a recently released report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, in 2010, e-book revenue was expected to account for 7.2 percent of all US consumer book sales. The report forecasts that e-books will have a 22.5 percent market share in 2015. In addition, OverDrive, a distributor of e-books to public libraries, reported earlier this month that its e-book checkouts at libraries rose 200 percent in 2010. The demand on librarians' time and expertise is therefore only going to grow.
Inevitably, libraries will now have to figure out how they link to this digital food chain. But for the time being, one of the more prominent roles seems to be that of the e-reader teacher. Whether this is a good or bad thing remains to be seen, it is felt.
For Kahle, the solution is to support a browser-based platform for e-books. But just as he declared that 'the e-book thing isn't happening, it's happened', a number of public librarians might reply the same about e-readers. For these librarians, e-readers are far from the margins and one of their most prevalent reference questions, it is observed.
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