The birth of the Kindle Tablet and the death of the public library

I was at a university library in St. Louis and was surprised to find shelves and shelves and shelves of books pertaining to the history of railroads. I had no idea that so many volumes had been written on this topic; I seriously doubt that all of these (possibly even any of these) are available as Kindle ebooks.

For that matter, many of the books in my own personal collection are still in print as paper books, but not available as ebooks.

I'm not sure how public libraries will continue to survive, but I'm not entirely sure how they are surviving now. It seems to me that the biggest chunk of their business is lending recent pop fiction novels and providing free internet access. But the point is, there is still lots of information ostensibly accessible in libraries that is not available on the Kindle. It'd be a shame if that information just vanished because people could get their pop fiction for free from Amazon.

But maybe that's the difference between public libraries and university / research libraries. Perhaps the two should merge, with the university libraries (which are funded and needed by the universities) also servicing the general public. The library at Cornell College operates this way.

I don't see much in that article to support "the death of the public library" hyperbole. It's easy to forget that $80 a year is a LOT of money for most people. When you are in technology, it's hard for you to understand how few people still are in the world that don't have internet access or computers. I was a member of a library advisory board in my city and the circulation rate and number of checked out items continues to climb.

The ultimate death of the public library probably won't come from some advance in technology but in the continued short-sightedness of local politicians who continue to underserve the poor and lower classes of their communities. Politicians see the libraries as easy ways to cut money from the budget, ignoring the fact that people who can't afford a computer and always on internet are the ones who need the library the most. In this day in age, it's getting harder and harder to get a job without a computer. If the library goes away, the unemployed poor are crippled.

The public library isn't just a place to get books. Just because you can get unlimited books on the Kindle won't mean the library is useless and articles like this only add to the fire that politicians use to justify decreasing funding for public libraries.

Just because I own an ebook reader doesn't mean that I don't visit my library. My budget will only take so many ebooks monthly—so, it's often cheaper to only buy what I really need and get the rest from the library.

I'm mildly disappointed that it'll be LCD just because I find eInk to be the coolest tech around.

Maybe the public library can survive by lowering their rental rate to zero, too.

You can rent books from your public library and read them on the kindle...