E-books discussed as Ontario librarians gather in Sudbury

Some 150 librarians from across northern Ontario are meeting this week in the city of Sudbury.

The annual conference includes vendors competing to sell thousand of titles of their published books. But they’re not only competing against other book sellers, but against the rise of e-books.

Sudbury recently invested $80,000 in new digital content for the libraries in the city.

There were 35,000 digital checkouts from Sudbury’s libraries last year, and more than 170,000 from other libraries across northern Ontario.

The technology adviser at Ontario Library Service North said embracing digital is important to keep libraries relevant.

“When you see people downtown having the latest and greatest devices, you can expect to see that in the library as well,” Brian Howard said.

At some libraries, they’re seeing an increase in membership and attribute it to the rise of e-books.

Already in 2010 Vancouver Public Library spokeswoman Jean Kavanagh said they had issued thousands of new memberships, and said e-books were largely responsible. She added that their website usage was up 20 percent.

There are drawbacks for libraries, including for example,publishers placing limits on the number of circulations permitted before “re-purchase”.

Meanwhile the first “bookless” library opened this month in San Antonio, Texas

The Bexar County digital library called BiblioTech is the first library in the United States that only provides digital copies of books to patrons rather than stocking paper copies as well.