E-BOOKS IN SPANISH LIBRARIES

Everybody is talking about e-books, lots of people also own one and others would like to have one. The question, however, is: How are public libraries going to deal with the issue of new technologies, and most especifically, e-readers?

Well, here's what's going on. The experience started in the Biblioteca Central de Cantabria and it has already spread to 15 libraries throughout our country, including University libraries such as Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , which has included the devices as part of their Plan de Fomento de la Lectura.

How does it work? If you are interested, you pay for the service and you can take home an e-reader with up to 1,000 e-books and you can borrow them for 15-45 days. PROBLEM: Some people are complaining because they want "something other than just the classics" and also books without copyright, which are the ones that people borrow the most.

I think this is really changing the way libraries go about borrowings and it is also sparking controversy and triggering change: "What can our library offer that others don't?" for example.

But until publishing houses face the challenge of digital editions, and offer updated lists of recent books, maybe this will probably make no difference in terms of borrowings in public libraries.

Not to mention the poor legibility of some devices and also the fact that some readers lack the habit of reading on a screen instead of paper.

What do you think? Do you think e-readers are a good tool to attract new readers?