#22 NetLibrary

I'm very familiar with NetLibrary since I select ebook titles for Auckland City as a member of the Collection Development Team.

Ebooks definitely fill a need for titles where all the reader requires is immediate access to content. They are particularly useful when students are studying a topic such as the Treaty of Versailles at the same time and all lending copies are out on loan. A keyword search of "Versailles" retrieves 5 available NetLibrary titles.

The growth of ebooks is a significant development in library service delivery. But there are a number of issues related to them. First, some publishers are still reluctant to offer new titles in electronic format for fear of losing hardcopy sales. And secondly, ebooks don't fully exploit their electronic nature. They are often nothing more than a scanned image and don't have the live links that users have come to expect from sites such as wikipedia.

Personally, although I've browsed through dozens of ebooks, I've yet to actually read one online cover-to-cover. I suspect my experience is fairly universal.