As I have grown, I have noticed that reading has changed quite a bit for me. I am now more critical of what I read. Some of the authors I loved growing up are no longer ones that I read as much, because I find that their books, while entertaining, are not as well written as I once thought them to be. Louis L'Amour is a great example of this. His books will always hold a special place in my heart, but I can't read one right after another anymore. Only when I am in the mood for a quick read. I think this change has occurred mostly because of the training I have received in literature and writing. My undergrad degree is in English Education. We were constantly taught and retaught to analyze what we read and critique it. I now approach each book I read with this mindset unconsciously. I still love reading all types of books, but I now opinion of a book now has several more filters to go through than it used to.
As for the second question, I will first talk about what I think a crazy cool, futuristic version of books could be, in honor of today being Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you all!). I think it would be really exciting if, in the future, we still have an actual book that we hold. However, as we turn each page, holograms of the characters and the scenes will pop on the page and voice actors will read the story as the holograms depict what is happening. It kind of like combining the best of movies and audiobooks together, while still getting the feeling that you are curling up with a book. It would be really cool if at the end of the book, you could choose to instantly connect to others that were reading the same story at the same time for an impromtu book discussion. Yeah, that would be pretty cool.
Okay, a little more seriously now. I have talked before about how digital downloads are growing rapidly in usage in public libraries. While I understand why this could be alarming to some, I am not scared of this change. I truly believe that we will eventually see digital books and physical books settle into a TV/radio relationship. They will both still exist, popularity will just fluctuate. Now, I don't want to get into too much right now, but I will be working on a research paper this summer (with the hopes of getting published) that will attempt to show that offering digital downloads actually encourages physical library usage rather than discourages it. And I have statistics to back up my hypothesis. So stay tuned for that. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that libraries will have to embrace the idea of digital downloads if they want to stay successful and relevant in today's culture. It is just another tool to add to our tool belt.
I have enjoyed this semester with all of you and wish you the best of luck in the future. If you ever need help with library issues, feel free to look me up. I'm the circulation manager at the Hancock County Public Library. So if you ever want to come for a visit, I can show you some of the cool things we are doing or I can just answer questions you might have about how certain digital services or RFID implementation impact circulation and library usage. Okay, enough shameless plugging. Hope to "see" some of you in future classes.
