Public Libraries

Promoting local public libraries since 1999

Research firm says 27 million tablets were sold in Q4 2011

A report released today by research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics, showed that 26.8 million tablets were sold globally in the fourth quarter of 2011.  That represents an increase of 150 percent over the 10.7 million tablets that were sold in the fourth quarter of the previous year.  The report does not include sales of dedicated ereaders like the Kindle in its sales numbers. [Read more…]

Public libraries are educational and creative community centers

Libraries are defined by Merriam-Webster as “a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale” or “a collection of such materials”.

I don’t know if the people that write dictionaries have been to a library in the last several years, but they really need to update their definition.  Public libraries today are definitely not what they used to be. [Read more…]

Will fully automated library kiosks get rid of libraries?

Contra Costa County Library launched the first automated book dispensing machines in the country in 2008.  Their Library-a-Go-Go dispensers are located at Bay Area Rapid Transit stops in the San Francisco area.  The machines hold up to 400 books which can be browsed from a touch screen.  They operate like an ATM with a swipe of a library card to dispense books.  Users can have up to three books checked out at a time and return the books to the Library-a-Go-Go machines. [Read more…]

Will libraries pay publishers every time an ebook is checked out?

Public libraries currently treat ebooks just like they do physical books.  They purchase the number of copies of the ebooks they want from the OverDrive platform for a fixed price per copy.  Libraries then loan those ebooks out to patrons as many times as they want to, except for certain titles which disintegrate after 26 check outs.  Libraries also have to pay an annual platform fee to OverDrive to be able to use their system. [Read more…]