Future of the libraries

What is the future of the library? We often ask us this question, especially since the introduction of Internet within the libraries and, since the Internet is redeveloping itself continuously, the library should ask itself the same question over and over again. One of the additional questions to the future of library is: should we have books in the library?

The library will become paperless. JSTOR is already offering many academic articles digitally. And now, since today, there is a new development that will make books superfluous! It is the announcement that Google has reached a deal with book publishers regarding copyright violations. There is a settlement for $125 million which will be used to establish a Book Rights Registry.

This will eventually lead that Internet users like you and me might soon be able to build an "online bookshelf" and buy licenses to read the full-text of books in Google's index. Libraries, universities, and other organizations will also be able to purchase an institutional subscription, which will give users the ability to access the full text of all the titles in the Google Books index. This, depending on the pricing, could turn out to be a revolutionary development for libraries.

Readers for digital journals/newspapers

When surfing on the Internet you sometimes find the most useful applications, but because you just continue surfing on the Internet that valuable application is lost. Not anymore for the applications that let you read digital version of journals. Currently, I know two applications:

1. Zinio - stand alone reader works perfectly with high serendipity
2. Nxtbook - Internet reader which works a bit slower than Zinio