Is there a place for books in Library 2.0?

[Rebecca]

Books!! Are they still a main feature of the library, or is the focus now only "information," mainly digital? I have been wondering this ever since my husband re-discovered the public library a few months ago. He reads more than anyone I know, but he had not been to a library in years, preferring to purchase his books online. We decided that we needed to save money, so he went to the library, and now he is like a kid in a candy store. He talks about forgetting the serendipity factor of browsing shelves and finding things by chance. He now goes once or twice a week and has moved through subjects in a way that makes sense only to him. Culture/tech books like Blink and The Black Swan have taken him to psychology books, then to economics books. It has been fun to see him become re-immersed in the book aspect of libraries.

So, my questions are: Do you still read books? Do you use the library to get books? Or do you prefer to get them online? If books are still important, then how do we "2.0" it up? I admit that I do some of my book stuff at the library, but I do feel limited by the selection. I usually find it easier to just go to Amazon where it is cheap and has a limitless selection. Especially when there is a specific something that I want right now. I am interested in finding a way to add the "limitless selection" idea to libraries (we can already beat the cheap part). How can we compete with all of the long tail abilities of the non-bricks-and-mortar outlets?

[Christie]

I read books all the time (even when I don't have to read them for class -- right now I'm reading so much for YA Lit that I kind of hate books a lot), and I get most of them from the library. My husband prefers to buy on Amazon, because he wants what he wants immediately. If I buy a book, there's a good chance I have checked it out from the library first, to make sure it's worth the money. Also the ones I buy tend to be nonfiction/reference kinds of things.

Requesting that books be held for me is one way that I make the library work for me, on my schedule. I'm so busy that browsing isn't really useful for me right now. But if I read a review or a mention of a particular book, I request it right then through HCL's website and pick it up when it's available. The wait is usually short, unless the book is very popular, and I have enough backup reading material for my limited time that even a longer wait doesn't generally trouble me. This sometimes involves getting the book from another branch of HCL or another library system altogether -- which does reduce the limitations of the library building.

Many audiobooks are available as downloads from HCL (though they do come with DRM that prevents their use on an iPod or other portable player, and that is a big obstacle for me).

This kind of question is hard for me because I tend to focus more on the details than on the big picture.

[Rebecca]

Christie, thanks for the response. I like the idea of requesting a book as soon as you read a review. I do this with movies at Netflix. Now you have me wondering if libraries have any kind of service, as Netflix does, where you can reserve books in advance, before the library even gets them? Netflix has the "save" request feature that will put the movies in your queue as soon as they are available to Netflix. I have only ever requested books the library already has. This would be a great feature, also giving the library an idea of what kind of demand there will be for certain titles.

[JustABook]

I still love books and usually use the library to get them. Although during the semester I'm extremely limited in the amount of reading besides for class. A book is the best way to curl up on a cool Sunday afternoon or in the evenings. I think reading online is not fun at all. In fact, I'm still usually printing the articles out for class - not all but some - instead of reading from the screen. I find much more comfort in the physical book - besides then I can find the most comfortable spot to read. I've also used the library almost exclusively. I tend not to buy books because I'm a fast reader. I'd spend a fortune.

[Amanda]

Rebecca, I worked for a large suburban two-county library system that put books into the system as soon as they were ordered, so patrons could start placing holds. It did help on determining the quantities to order for certain titles.

[sarah jesudason]

Personally, I still read books. I will pick up any book that interests me, and I have a system for getting through the pile: I give a book 30 pages to grab me, and 75 pages to make me care enough to finish it. I do use the library for most books; for some titles (especially cookbooks or knitting books, or novels by favorite authors) I may wind up buying my own copy later on.

Professionally, what I find is that when you are in a conversation with a patron about a title, that conversation has likely started because the title is not available at that moment - either through not being in the collection at all, being on-order but not shelf-ready yet, or being tied up in a holds list. This is where you talk up what you can offer - ILL, a purchase suggestion, a recommendation that more copies are bought, and an alternate title to tide them over. The last one is where I find goodreads, librarything and subscription database sites like Novelist to be most helpful if it's a genre I'm not familiar with. It's not quite the same as limitless selection, but it is unlimited possibilities, and some patrons grab right onto using them.