[saltlick]

. . ."Actually, I wonder what is going to happen to libraries as the printed word becomes more and more digital. For a library to have one or two copies of a particular book, and lend it out free of charge, is not a threat to booksellers. On the other hand, there's no way libraries can obtain digital copies of a book etc. and make them available online for free. No one would buy books (or online access to them) anymore.

Hi,

I can offer a little insight: many libraries already offer digital books; the way the agreements with the publisher works in some of these cases is that a limited number of virtual "copies" of the books are available for "check-out" at a time. For example, if 2 people were currently viewing/reading the 2 digital copies of a book the library had in its catalog, that you wanted read, you would have to wait until one of the people closed their browser (returned the book, so to speak) before you could view the digital version.

Best regards,
Saltlick

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Thanks!

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Libraries here offer digital ebooks and audio books for “free” (ignoring taxes) downloads. I recently discovered the audio books & I was astonished at the quality. Not long ago, they were crappy: read by library volunteers; recorded with crappy equipment, onto crappy cassette tapes; and, often abridged. Now, they're published by the private sector; read by professional readers (actors, radio announcers, etc.); using studio equipment; and available on-line in several formats. I've been “reading” half a dozen audio books a week.

There are thousands of books available for download, so the waits for digital versions aren't much worse, than for printed versions.