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"There is valuable information in both of these comments. To the first one I would add that Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp, on April 5, said the future of newspapers is on iPads; the sales of Electronic Books topped $50 million in the 4th quarter of 2009; and the Public Library Association (PLA 2010) speaker Michael Porter said,"Libraries need a new electronic content access and distribution infrastructure." We need to advocate politically on behalf of everyone having access to this medium because a well-informed electorate is most important. Print books remain crucial in this effort, also.
Further, the Google Books Library Project is scanning from the collections of Harvard University, New York Public Library,the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and numerous others. I'm sure we will be amazed at the number of books available online in our lifetime. Virtually, every book published now has an electronic version available and a significant number of books and journals are online only. Even many medieval manuscripts are available digitally now (see my article "Tulsa's Medieval Future").
To the second comment, I would add that TCCL could add to its many valuable services and collections a home page that is relevant and useful every day to every citizen in Tulsa County, organized along the lines of USA.gov. Such a website could offer large print online books, and audio books which are downloadable. Along with record retention, KM can facilitate access many useful tools. PLA 2010 also recommended that,"Federal, State and Local Government agencies should support libraries as points of access for eGovernment services.""
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