Libraries in the Digital Age

I admit that I am not very into technology, and I often wish that I could just become a good old fashioned librarian who only works with books.  I love books with a passion, and I love working with them.  And yet, I am part of the digital age, and I do frequently use technology.  Also, as a librarian, I will need to help those who need to use digital resources.  One major shift of the digital age is the rise of ebooks.  I know many people who have switched almost entirely over to reading books on their ipads or kindles or nooks, rather than an actual monograph book.  While I have not switched myself, I know that a lot of people prefer the convenience of being able to download a book online and not have to store a lot of physical books.  Libraries have embraced the digital age in many ways, and they too now provide ebooks for their patrons. 

Ebooks might help with storage and space issues in libraries.  They certainly are convenient for patrons who can download a book onto their device at home, or anywhere else, without having to actually go to the library.  But there are some issues that libraries have had in providing ebooks to their communities.  At first, it looked like ebooks would be great since a book could be purchased without having to physically print it.  However, publishers realized that only one copy of a book would need to be purchased, and it would last forever.  They would lose a lot of business.  So they at first refused to sell ebooks to libraries.  It took awhile, but publishers have worked out some ways to be able to sell ebooks to libraries and still make money.  Such things as having a limit on how many times an ebook could circulate, or by making the price of an ebook higher, or by having a time limit on using the ebook before it would need to be paid for again.  The system still is not perfect, as you can read in this article: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.palomar.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=9&sid=ff0251c0-db50-487f-90ee-ca5c35c46c2a%40sessionmgr114&hid=109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=97937362&db=aph
One of the issues is that school libraries often cannot afford many ebooks due to their higher price.  Still, many libraries have embraced the ebook and are determined to make them available to keep patrons happy. 

Acedo, Shannon, and Cathy Leverkus. "UPDATES ON EBOOKS Challenges & Changes." Knowledge Quest 43.1 (2014): 44-52. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.