All digital, all the time

Library patrons can download books and music at home, By Pamela Chergotis Warwick —Suddenly, you’re wide awake. It’s past midnight, and you’ve got a hankering for a good book — or maybe a bad one, to put you back to sleep. If you’ve already read all the titles on your nightstand, don’t worry. You can get the latest from the library. But, you might think, the library won’t be open for hours. Wrong. Libraries are now ready to serve all around the clock — virtually. By logging on to the Ramapo-Catskill Library System Digital Download Center (http://efiles.rcls.org), any resident can get books, audiobooks, and music without leaving home. “This is the future,” said Robert Hubsher, director of the library system, when introducing the program on Tuesday. “It will create a whole new group of library users. In business it would be called an opportunity to get a whole new market share. A lot of people don’t want to go to the library building.” Many other libraries already offer digital downloads, but most are in big cities like New York and Los Angeles and not in suburban-rural areas like the ones Ramapo-Catskill serves. “We know from the New York Public Library and Cleveland libraries that it’s been very popular,” Hubsher said. He expects downloads will also be popular in this area, which has many commuters who cannot easily get to their local library but who want books or music to listen to on their ride to work. Hubsher described a world in which business travelers are able to download research or the latest Tom Clancy novel right from their local library while flying to their next appointment. Library materials will be available to Catskill-Ramapo patrons no matter where they are in the world. The digital download center web site provides detailed instructions on how to get started. It offers free software to enable the downloads, so all a patron needs is a valid library card and Internet connection. What patrons can do with the material is limited, however. Most audiobooks, if they are to be portable, need to be downloaded into MP3 players; they are not compatible with iPods. But this is the same compatibility problem affecting commercial downloads. Apple Computer, which makes the iPod, “wants you to use their stuff, not stuff from other sources,” Hubsher said. Futhermore, downloaded texts cannot be turned into hard copy, except for a few chapters or sections. But every page of each book — including illustrations — appears in the download exactly as it does in the paper edition. Books can be also be transferred to a hand-held wireless device, like Palm Pilots and BlackBerries. BusinessWeek has reported just this month that SONY plans to unveil a portable e-reader device in the $300 to $500 range, which will make curling up with a good book easier than if it were on a desktop or laptop computer. Another advantage of downloads is that there are no late fees. The materials will be “returned” automatically on their due dates. At this time, patrons can delete the expired files from their computers. While a book is “out,” no other patron will be able to take out that book. Limiting use is necessary because the writers and musicians who create the work still need to be compensated, just as they are for non-digital editions, Hubsher said. The library system is, however, offering about 50 e-books that do not limit the number of patrons who can “take them out” simultaneously, a service for which the library pays extra. Check the “Always Available Audio” option on the web site for a full list of these books. Hubsher said the library system will keep adding to the list. For other books, patrons who find the titles they want already in use can ask to be notified by e-mail when they become available. The library will reserve the books for two days. If the patron has not downloaded them by this time, they will return automatically. Special features of digital downloads include digital bookmarks, which enable readers to find their place just as they do when they mark paper editions, and speed controls, which allow listeners of audiobooks to slow down or speed up the voice with no distortion. Hubsher said the slow-down feature is especially useful to people trying to learn English as a second language. All of this was made possible by a grant through a federal Library Services and Technology Act grant. The project started in April 2005 and will continue until the end of March 2007. During that time the library system will closely watch what kinds of books and music patrons like best. Patrons are also encouraged to suggest materials they’d like to see available at the download center. The site offers a place where patrons may offer suggestions. The system will continue to add material from the one-million-piece collection of its 47 member libraries until everything eventually is available in digital format. But Hubsher said he did not think he’d see that in his lifetime. And new as digital downloads are to libraries, they are old hands at adopting groundbreaking technology. They’ve seen it all, from books and cassettes to CDs, videotapes, and DVDs. “Libraries have been the earliest adopters of technology,” Hubsher said. “We always gone with the flow of storing information.”