ResourceBlog Article: How e-Books Could Smarten Up Kids and Stretch Library Dollars: A National Plan

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Friday, 23rd October 2009

How e-Books Could Smarten Up Kids and Stretch Library Dollars: A National Plan

David Rothman, the founder of one of our favorite blogs, Teleread.org, had a guest column published in The Huffington Post on Thursday. In it Rothman calls for a National Digital Library System.

He writes:

Today millions of children are still growing up in bookless homes. But suppose a well-stocked national digital library system existed for Americans of different ages, along with the means to encourage schoolchildren and others to use it.

He goes on to say:

Ideally the e-books would be just the start. Imagine blending the system into local schools and libraries, while letting states and localities tailor the national collection to their particular needs. Teach the teachers how to work the library system into their lessons. Getting e-books and other items online isn't enough by itself.

The concluding sentence about getting e-books online is not enough is one point we're right with him on with or without a national e-books program. Buying content, technology, etc. is not THE solution. Hardly. People (users and potential users) first have to know that the service or resource is available and in some cases that it exists in the first place. Then users have to learn how to use the technology. How much money is wasted when technology is purchased that can do many things only gets used at a bare bones level?

Rothman writes that the key to the program is a full-service program that can help get technophobes to use the technology.

More After a Click

Other key passages:

We could even cost-justify the digital library system by encouraging the use of the same hardware for tax documents and other paperwork, including health records. Imagine, too, the kick-start that this could give to newspapers. With the right hardware it would be more comfortable to read them at leisure rather than darting from Web page to Web page

[Snip]

Library e-books are borrowable at thousands of public libraries. Trouble is, the collections are too small and don't address many people's needs -- especially those of children, who will respond better to books precisely matching their interests. Ask any literacy expert.

Even if you don't have children, check out the International Children's Digital Library. It's very cool and simple search interface is even cooler.

A small telecommunications tax could pay for the system, and so could the cost savings from uses such as electronic forms. Significantly, America is spending hundreds of billions on telecommunications-related activities, many times the expenditures on books.

Source: The Huffington Post

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