Comment on Editorial: Why spend $50 million on the “last library?” by Nevada Man
Exactly what I was thinking since last Monday, when the Los Angeles Times reported that last Christmas – for the first time ever – Amazon sold more books in downloadable electronic form than as traditional print copies. This trend will not reverse but rather accelerate to near the speed of light with the iPad, which was introduced on Wednesday.
For those who are unable to imagine this, try to remember film. It virtually disappeared within 5 years, after being the dominant medium to record images for more than 150 years. It went so quick that those who tried to convince us that digital cameras will never be able to produce images that match the quality of film, were almost not able to finish that sentence before the last film processing lab in town closed its doors.
Some will argue that the price of an iPad is not affordable for people who rely on the library for their literature. True, but they have options. Experts expect the price of dedicated e-readers (the iPad does far more than just display e-books) to drop to around $150. By the time the proposed library will be completed, that price should be even less. This should make these devices affordable, particularly if we don’t have to part with those $26 the intended sales tax increase is supposed to cost the average Carson City household per year.
Plus, not building a new library doesn’t mean we have to close the old one and throw away the books that are already there. The current library will be perfect in size to meet the decreasing demand.