The Washington Post reports on the challenges faced by public libraries around the United States in their effort to provide e-books to their patrons:
Joseph Sigurani used to have to trek 10 miles to borrow a verse of Shakespeare or the latest true-crime novel. These days, he simply reaches for his computer.
Through an e-book lending program being rolled out at hundreds of public libraries across the country, Sigurani can access practically any work he desires, at any hour of day, from the comfort of his home just northeast of Silicon Valley. And all for free. . . The services may be every bibliophile\’s dream, but publishing houses worry that the lending programs will cannibalize their revenue and destroy financial incentives for popular writers. The fear isn\’t so much about the demise of old-fashioned paper books – after all, no one\’s quite figured out how to make a digital book as enchanting as fresh print. It\’s more about whether free electronic libraries unfairly compete with the digital initiatives of booksellers, effectively devaluing their copyrights.
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