The Coming of eMedia: May our library survive the new publishing model

The author

The old author business model: Get a great idea for a novel. Write the novel. Find an
agent to peddle the novel to a publisher. After years of effort, maybe one
publisher will be interested, and only after several re-writes. After the novel is printed, distributed to book stores and sold, maybe the author receives $1 for every $30 book sold.

The new author business model: Get a great idea for a novel. Write the novel. Upload
the novel on Amazon as an eBook in about 10 minutes. Receive $3.50 for every
$10 copy of the book sold. The new author business model is also the new
model for music and I bet the new model for feature films that will go directly
online and bypass the DVD stage.

OK, so in the new business model I skipped a few steps that are always necessary for a
literary work to be successful, like getting qualified people to review and
edit the piece and then re-writing it a few times before releasing it. However,
the economics are what they are. Who wouldn’t work for two or three more times
salary and 70 percent less hassle?

The library

The old library model: Buy books, CDs, and now DVDs. Catalogue and provide shelf
space for the items. Check them out to patrons, check them back in and
re-shelve when returned. Repeat the cycle.

The new library model: Purchase digital books, music and movies along with limited,
library use licenses from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Netflix and other
web media publishers. Load them on a server for the patrons to download via the
web. No books. No shelves. No building. No fuss. No muss.

The above is a little extreme and I’m not even remotely suggesting that the library system
as we know it will soon end.  But as I think about all the vinyl records, eight tracks, cassette tapes, and video tapes I’ve purchased and then discarded as technology upon technology brought on the new and washed out the old, I wonder at the effect the new publishing era will have on the old paper book.  

In Niles we have a Senior Center for the seniors, a Teen Center for the teens, Park District and fitness centers for the athletically inclined and various churches and organizations for affiliated members. Our library is the one place in all of Niles that any resident is welcomed without restrictions to gender, age, political beliefs, religion, organizational membership or financial resources. I’ve often felt that our library and the whole of the extended library system is the embodiment of the democratically free society where information and resources are provided just for the asking.

The advances in technology have enabled the methods we use to record, store and convey information to have a very short life. And I fear that bound books may be next in line on technology’s hit list. But I hope that there will always be a place on the shelf for a beautifully bound book and the need to feel the weight of the words in your hand. When you pass by that beautiful building on Oakton and Waukegan, maybe you can think about what the library means to the people of Niles and what it would mean if it were to ever leave. Stop in and check out a book before they are all gone.