Books

Libraries aren’t the only way to Lend

Jon Davis | Wednesday 23 February, 2011 13:54

You’ll have been hard pressed not to have heard the news and protests about the closure of hundreds of the nation’s libraries. The level of demonstration has perhaps been surprising given the number of us who regularly visit a library, but it’s clear books have become a real political issue. Due to my job I have been a prolific library visitor over the last year and found them to be a fascinating mix of drop in centre, book haven and crèche. The clientele often ranges from those resembling a host of sickly patients from a doctor’s waiting room, middle aged book lovers, and young children. There are also those with unimaginable patience who come to use the Neolithic, glacial paced computers.

But central to the dispute over library cuts is the question of what libraries are for? If their sole aim is to lend books, then the recent news that ebook lending schemes are springing up all over America could add an interesting twist to the debate. Kindle owners in America can already lend their ebooks to friends for two weeks and a host of sites unaffiliated with the mega-brand are starting to prove popular.

The website Lendle (US only) allows you to lend and borrow books to an online community of Kindle owners and even those with kindle apps. The site has only just been launched but is already offering over a thousand books in a wide range of genres. Only those who lend books can borrow in return, but unlike Amazon’s service, books are only returned once they’ve been read. Could this then prove to be the future of book lending, filling the gap left by our ailing library service?

Well, it’s far too early to say. But with the increasing popularity and ease of the ereaders it might not be long until we all own this cold slice of technology. The idea of a building housing row upon row of books already appears to me as a nostalgic, archaic and sepia tinged image. It’s not that I don’t love libraries, rather that they’ll need to evolve if they want to survive.

Of course sites like Lendle are more of an immediate concern to publishers. Despite the fact that Lendle claims to have sold more books than it’s lent due to links to Amazon, it’s a very twitchy time for the book trade. Furthermore, with ebooks decreasing the sensation of owning a book (they’re only files hidden in a computer rather than objects on a shelf), surely we won’t feel the need to own them at all. Whatever the future of libraries, the way we consume books is changing rapidly.

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