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Originally Posted by Sliver
I would think renting, leasing, subsidizing, etc. ebook readers would be something to explore. Purchasing tens (hundreds?) of thousands of books is going to be incredibly expensive. Plus books are inherently fragile and I'm sure they need to be replaced on a somewhat regular basis (for the popular books). I honestly can't believe in 2011 you'd be questioning the viability of electronic books replacing paper books. It's an inevitability.
I agree the building is important - I already said they need computers, meeting spaces, etc. I just think paper books are going the way of the dodo bird so I'd be more impressed if they were focusing on the future with this library more than the past with floors and floors of paper books. For all I know they are.
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Okay, they aren't just going to burn all of the books in the old library, I'm pretty sure they plan on moving those books to the new one, so I'm sure that'll save them a few bucks.
Second, if you're worried about replacement costs of books I don't think renting ebook readers is likely to be a great substitute.
Yeah, ebook readers are becoming much more prevalent, and I'm sure the library will start to get licenses for more ebooks as time goes on, but in the meantime, for all of those books that aren't available electronically (including I'd imagine a huge ammount of reference and research books), a nice new building will be great.
That being said, I'm sure they'll do some pretty cool things with this new library to bring it into the 21st century, it's not likely to be a big building with just a bunch of shelves.
All this new technology that's available will be a means to enhance traditional libraries, not replace them.