would be something of an understatement to say that the world of public libraries is changing at the time. On the one hand, the rise of open access means that people are increasingly able to find information online that took place earlier in tight rows of volumes stored on shelves in the library. On the other hand, the reluctance of publishers of electronic books to give up a key role of traditional libraries in danger. So what should public libraries are in the digital age? Eric F. Van de Velde wrote aa fascinating exploration of this question, and suggestions.

Here's the problem:

The value proposition of loans based on digital paper and are fundamentally different. A library on paper the construction of a permanent infrastructure: the collections, buildings, and catalogs are assets that continue to pay dividends in the future. However, the resources invested in the loans are pure digital head. This includes time spent by personnel licensing, development and maintenance of authentication systems, OpenURL, proxy and web servers, and software development to provide a unified interface to disparate systems, content distributors.

this means:

Libraries need a different vision for the digital future, which focuses on strengthening the digital infrastructure. We must preserve the traditional values ??of the library, not the traditional library institutions, processes and services.

So how could
in practice?

budgets by gradually acquiring the conversion of grant budgets, libraries could become open access customers. It can hold grant competitions for the production of works of open access. For works and artists who also sponsor the goals of your community, each library contributes to an open-access digital library Standing for everyone. Editors have a role in the development of grant proposals covering all stages of production and marketing of the work. In addition to producing works of open access, commercial publishers could develop value-added services. Finally, innovative markets, as developed by Gluejar enable libraries (and other) to acquire the digital rights to commercial works and release them.

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