Once I went to university, I stopped going to the library. Even university libraries are pretty poor for computer science books - and the ability to buy cheap paperbacks online obliterated my need to visit them. It wasn't until Surrey libraries started offering digital borrowing that I even thought about my local library. Nowadays, I'm found there once a week teaching computer programming to kids.

The popular children’s-author Terry Deary says that libraries are obsolete and, in these times of austerity, we shouldn't feel bad about them closing down.

Naturally, this has outraged both traditional and progressive authors.

Neil Gaiman

@neilhimself

Selfish & stupid, shortsighted & sad. Mostly selfish. Terry Deary gets avaricious & anti-library: bit.ly/15de7Ve

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Even regular people seem to think that libraries ought to be preserved.

Neil Gaiman

@neilhimself

Selfish & stupid, shortsighted & sad. Mostly selfish. Terry Deary gets avaricious & anti-library: bit.ly/15de7Ve

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Metty

@_Metonymy_

Replying to @neilhimself@neilhimself what?!? Our library is like the center of our community! Tons of events happen there, and it is always packed

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(I've picked those two statuses more-or-less at random, there are thousands of people who tweeted Neil about this.)

What it comes down to is asking "what is a library for?"

When I've expressed the opinion that high-street shopping needs to die off, someone always says to me "But old folk like going out shopping - it's their only chance to interact and chat with people."

The is a skeuomorph solution. We're keeping alive a vestigial part of society when really, we ought to be re-engineering it. We wouldn't say "electric car engines should be designed in such a way that they should be started by hand cranks and towed by horses," would we?

The solution for pensioners' social lives isn't necessarily coupled with a retail experience - we should have decent care, community centres, and services which meet people's needs.

It's exactly the same with libraries.

Last month, I wrote about the proper use of the library. It's no longer solely about borrowing books or looking up back issues of periodicals. It's about the Internet, a community meeting space, a learning environment. Being the rampant egotist that I am, I'll quote myself:

The proper use of a library is a space where people can feel safe and enjoy free access to culture.

Let me spell it out simply. Lending books is not what a library is for any more.

We need to decouple the idea of book loans from that of a library. All those people who say that their library is used for events, for poetry readings, for toodlers, for accessing the web, and for teaching kids to code - they're not talking about a building for book lending, they're talking about a community centre.

For readers and authors who are worried about people not discovering new books, or being unable to take a chance on a new author or genre, the ability for a random small town library to carry a specific book is vastly inferior to an author giving away free copies on their website.

Amazon is full of authors allowing their books to be downloaded for free (or at extremely low cost) in the hope that the reader will be sufficiently interested to buy the next book in the series.

Rethinking The Library

What would happen if we shut down all the libraries and gave everyone in the UK a Kindle?

(Aside from massive protests!)

Here's some back of the envelope calculation...

Unison have produced an excellent pamphlet about library provisions in the UK. In it, they estimate that the total expenditure on UK libraries in 2006 was £1,063,120,000.

A billion quid plus change. I assume that covers buying books, staffing, buildings, etc. The Public Lending Right in the UK means that authors get paid when their book is borrowed from the library (6.2p per borrow, to a maximum of £6,600). According to the PLR, the total cost of this was £7.6 million in 2006. That's roughly 122,580,000 library borrows per year - a little over two per person.

I'm unsure if the £1 billion figure includes the PLR's £7.6 million - but let's say it does to err on the side of caution.

A basic eReader's cost ranges from £60 for a Kobo, to £70 for a Kindle, to £80 for a Nook. Let's assume that technology gets cheaper, that eReaders are treated like books for VAT purposes (0% rather than 20%), and economies of scale means that prices drop.

It's not a stretch of the imagination to say that next year a basic e-ink ereader could cost no more than £30. Indeed - the Txtr beagle eReader costs a mere £8. Yes, eight.

The billion pound yearly library budget costs roughly £20 per person per year.

So, dissolve all the libraries. Give everyone in the UK a voucher good for £30 off a qualifying eReader (you can buy the cheap as chips version or pay extra to get the Kindle HD Super Max Plus if you want).

With the remainder of the money, continue the Public Lending Scheme but tie it to a national digital library.

You can either borrow a book - in which case the state will pay the author. You can download a public domain books - for free. Authors can sell their books for whatever price they choose - or give them away.

Who loses? Every person - not just children - gets fast access to infinite knowledge, authors get exposure and get paid, vast sums of public money are saved, and we can use the remainder of the money to digitize our archives.

The physical buildings which house books can be converted into community centres, meeting places, Internet hubs - without the need to store books and insist on silence.

Rip, Mix, Burn

I don't mean we should literally set fire to libraries - nor their book collections.

Apple launched its iMac and integrated CD writer with the slogan "Rip, Mix, Burn".

The idea is simple. Rip the music out of your CDs or vynil and convert them to digital information, mix them up to create new things, burn the new tracks into the world.

And that's exactly what is needed with libraries. Rip the analogue books to digital formats, remix the services so they're more useful to people, burn the new way of experiencing culture into society.

I walked through the extensive computer section of the library. Dozens of computers with free Internet access. While a few people were on Wikipedia, or checking out the library catalogue, the majority seemed to be playing free flash games on the web.

For a moment, I struggled to contain my rage. My inner-Tory spluttered invectives about how the workshy were wasting hard-pressed taxpayers money. Rather than improving themselves by looking for work, or getting an education, or writing a novel - they were frittering their time on "Bubble Smash" and "Tetris Extreme".

Disgusted, I turned away, as saw a young man lounging on a chair, a copy of The Colour of Magic grasped in his hands. My brain calmed down. Here, at least, was someone using their mind.

Then it struck me as to what a total arse I was. I have no idea how these people spend their time. I certainly enjoy farting around on Facebook after a long day's work - why shouldn't they? I sit on the tube playing Angry Birds - I don't cure cancer; so who am I to go around judging people?

It boils down to this.

Is playing a video game somehow worse than reading a work of fiction?

It feels wrong, but I can't put my finger on it. A game like Portal has a story as good as any you'll find in the sci-fi section of the library. Playing scrabble with friends in a far away lands is no less genteel than playing it after a dinner party. LittleBigMansion will test your logic and reasoning skills as much as any detective novel.

The library loans out works of fiction - both written and in video form. They used to rent out video games, but they were often stolen. So why not allow people to play games on the library computers?

None. There is no difference. Video games are as culturally relevant as any other work of art. Relaxing with a good book is, if anything, a far ore passive and didactic experience than playing a game.

Regardless of that, it's not up to me to dictate how people spend their leisure time. It's very easy to see a snapshot of someone's life and extrapolate all sorts of misinformed ideas about them.

I glanced above the heads of some of the people furiously alt-tabbing between games and emails and saw this poster. The proper use of a library is a space where people can feel safe and enjoy free access to culture.

The first lesson was a great success. It was held before the Christmas break - so I was eager to make sure that interest hadn't waned. Far from it - we were over subscribed!

We had 10 PCs and 12 kids - which lead to some sharing of equipment. Everyone involved seemed to enjoy it (including me) - so I thought it would be worthwhile to make some general notes which I hope may be of use to other instructors.

• Girls like coding! Around a third of participants were mini-LadyGeeks. The CodeClub plans are suitable for boys and girls.


• Sharing a PC sucks. I don't know if it's better to exclude kids who turn up late, or make them do "pair programming" - but it's harder to learn if one person is doing the work and one is an onlooker.


• Make sure you have all your handouts ready. Due to a printer mishap, we had to share some worksheets - that's not great when kids are working at different speeds.


• Scatch is very simple. Which means the enterprising child can find half a dozen ways to make it misbehave! With 10 children clamouring for attention, it can be hard to spot where the bug is. Sometimes it's best to say "Delete everything, start again, and follow the instructions really carefully!"


• Some kids finish early and want to be stretched. You can either give them the advanced assignments (add more monsters, change their colours, etc) or you can deputise them into classroom assistants. Guess which option I chose!


• Kids can be really creative - both in terms of the customisations they build and the questions they ask. I'll never forget how a little girl with an Alice band asked me "How can I make the monster drip with blood and then have its head explode when I click on it?"


• Parents can be a hindrance. Remember when you got a train set for your birthday and your dad "helped" you by putting it all together, breaking it, and then claiming it wasn't his fault that you weren't enjoying it? Any kids who can use a mouse can probably get by without parental help.


• That said, having parents view the child's work at the end of the lesson is really encouraging. It lets the parent know what their kid has been doing and it gives the kid a chance to show off.


• Have a memory stick for each participant to save their work on. Thanks to Telefonica (my employer, I'm not speaking for them, may contain nuts, etc.) I was able to give a flash drive to each kid. I put on a copy of Scratch for Linux, Mac, and Windows - along with some other programming resources. Not every kid will have a computer at home, but Scratch will quite happily run from a memory stick on a school or library machine.


• Use headphones if the program needs sound. It stops the kids from getting distracted by hearing the noises eminating from their friends' PCs. In a library setting, it stops you getting glared at.


• Have helpers. I'm enormously grateful to the staff of Woking Library who have been helping me. Dealing with ten excitable children is slightly more complex than I imagined!

...and all that's just from two sessions! Wonder what the next will bring?

If you want to help young people learn how to program computers, you can download Scratch for free - and register with CodeClub to get their lesson plans.

Adam Cohen-Rose

@adamcohenrose

hey @edent Surrey Library Service in Woking is looking for a @CodeClub volunteer… know anyone? codeclub.org.uk/getting-starte…

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So, after a few months of negotiations, demonstrations, CRB checks, and consultations - I'm now ready to run a pilot programme at Woking Library.

Although I've written a few short stories about learning Python, this class will be entirely taught using Scratch.

It's been quite fun learning a new programming language. I really appreciate how simple the drag-and-drop interface is. It's also great that the language runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows. More importantly, it can be run from a USB stick - so the locked down machines of the library will have no problems running it.

I've written a demo game, learned most of what Scratch can do, and loaded up a dozen USB sticks with Scratch and other resources. Now all I need is for some kids to come along so I can fill their brains with a love of coding!

If you're interested in running a club at your school, or want to volunteer, visit www.codeclub.org.uk

My bookshelves used to burst at the seams. Every individual shelf bowed violently from the over-stuffed mass of paperbacks squeezed onto it. Shakespeare rubbed up with Straczinsky. A complete set of Terry Pratchett was enviously glowered at by a patchy Enid Blyton collection. Half-read oddities nestled with well worn volumes. A copy of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" which taught me how to read as a child occupying the same shelf as the a Camille Paglia book purchased solely to make me look intellectual. I somehow acquired two copies of Machiavelli's "The Prince". What I want to convey to you is that I have a deep and abiding love for books. That is why I must burn them.

Every time I find an ebook copy of a book I have on my shelf, the ebook version is downloaded - redundantly backed up - and placed in my Calibre library. The physical book is burned.

Please, don't get me wrong. I'm not engaging in a Fahrenheit 451 orgy of destruction. Each physical book is carefully checked and then given to a charity shop so it can be enjoyed anew by someone else. I'm not a monster! I even gift-aid my donations.

But, for a while, it felt like I was doing something terrible. Destroying or disrespecting books is a secular sin - that's what comes of having an English teacher for a parent. I'm trying to be a hip, 21st century guy and live digitally - but I have a heap of 20th century baggage (and a bunch of monkey-brained concepts) which are hard to let go of.

Having physical stuff feels good. Ultimately though, digital stuff is better. More convenient, easier to save in case of a fire, more useful, and takes up less space. I'm doing to my books what I did to my CDs - going 100% digital.

But What About The Smell Of Books?

Throughout the web, you'll see people saying "Oh! But reading an ebook doesn't feel the same! You don't get same smell as old books! They're cold and soulless."

This is nonsense. Find an ebook copy of the book you loved as a child. After a minute, you'll be right inside Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and won't care whether the words are on eink or written on papyrus.

CDs are better at reproducing music than vinyl records ever were. DVDs are better than VHS. Ebooks are better than physical books. They contain the same words, the same stories and ideas, they entertain and delight in exactly the same way.

And now, I can carry my whole library with me wherever I go.

What Is A Library For?

Libraries have many ancillary functions that they've developed over the years. At their core, they are no more than a semi-convenient warehouse for books.

I asked my local library how many books they had - this was their response.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Replying to @SurreyLibraries@SurreyLibraries hi, do you know how many books are in the Surrey Library system? Or how many physical books a library like Woking has?

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Surrey Libraries UK

@SurreyLibraries

Replying to @edent@edent Hi - at the end of last year we had 1,708,142 books in stock (Surrey Libraries) Woking Library had 74,805.

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(I assume that's physical volumes rather than distinct titles as they have duplicate copies of popular books.)

How Many Books Could a Bookchuck Chuck?

Could I carry on my Kindle every single book that my local library holds?

Ebooks come in various file sizes. A typical novel weighs in at under 500KB. An illustrated book is typically under 3MB. A comic - or other work with a large quantity of images - could be over 100MB.

Judging from my collection, the average ebook file is around 1MB. Which is rather convenient for our calculations.

Woking Library has 74,805 books. At 1MB each - that's 73GB of files.

Buying a 75GB hard disk today is almost impossible. The smallest size readily available is 1TB. That's 1024GB. Or, enough to hold 1,048,576 typical ebook. Slightly shy of the total number of books held by all the libraries in the county.

Total cost for a 1TB external hard drive? Around £60. Less than the price of a couple of cheap bookshelves.

If you wanted to carry the books on a MicroSD card - suitable for a nook or other ereader - then a 32GB card will set you back £30. You could carry around 90,000 ebooks with you for less than £100.

Realistically, though, how many books can you read in your lifetime? Even on holiday with nothing to do but laze on a beach and read - I manage about one book per day.

Were I to live to 100 years of age, and read one book per day, every day. I would barely be able to fill a single 32GB MicroSD card.

Everything I've ever read could fit on one of these.

What's My Point?

I have none. Thank you for reading anyway.

eBooks and eAudiobooks from Surrey Library (click to embiggen)

"Bet the site doesn't work on my phone," I thought.

http://ebooks.surreycc.gov.uk/

I was wrong!

Overall, this is a brilliant new service. A great initiative to get people reading more books and improving library services.  Take a look at ebooks.surreycc.gov.uk

There's just one problem...

DRM

Digital Restrictions Management - as the name implies - prevents you from performing certain actions with a file.  As it happens, I don't disagree with the notion that a rented work should have restrictions on its use.  These books are given to me for free - I don't own them.  DRM serves to enforce the tacit social construct that - if I borrow a book from you - I'm expected not to lend it on and return it after a reasonable period.  That's fine with me.

What I do disagree with is artificial scarcity.  In the "real" world, if you only have 3 copies of a book, you can only lend out 3 copies.  In the digital world, if you have one item, you can copy it an infinite number of times.  Pick a file, hit CTRL+C then CTRL+V - instant copy.  And you can do it as many times as you like.

In a physical library, only one person can borrow a book at a time.  In a digital library, it makes no sense to say there is only one copy.

The title can be lent out to as many people who want it.

Some books are - bizarrely - more available than others.  Why can some books have 7 copies and others only 1?

Which leads us in to the incredible situation of being on a waiting list for a digital file!

This artificial scarcity also has an impact on the number of books you can borrow.  If I'm going on a two week holiday, why shouldn't I be allowed to borrow as many books as I like?  Taking those books from a physical library would stop other patrons enjoying the works - in a digital library anyone can borrow any work simultaneously.

Finally, we have the issue of copying.  One of the reasons I use libraries is for research.  In fairness, the DRM does allow for limited copying.  But different books have different allowances despite - presumably - being covered by the same copyright regime.

This is madness.  Why take something as amazing as the digital revolution and try to drag it down to the mundane level of the analogue world?  It's like inventing the motorcar and insisting that drivers carry a bale of hay, replacement horseshoes and travel no faster that 50mph.

Compatibility

The side effect of this wasteful DRM is a lack compatibility with popular products.

The MP3 and WMA audiobooks require the OverDrive Media Console.  ODMC is compatible with PC and Mac - but not Linux.  It works on Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows mobile - but not the billions of Symbian or J2ME handsets out there.

The DRM on the eBooks requires Adobe's proprietary Digital Editions software.  It's not available on Linux and - judging by the comments on my blog - it doesn't work very well on Windows or Mac.  It's also restricted to a few ebook readers - excluding Amazon's Kindle.

So, due to DRM, we're left with a library service which...

• Artificially restricts how many books are available.
• Forces people to buy a particular brand of eBook reader or mobile phone.
• Requires the use of Windows or Mac.
• Prevents the early return of some media (you can't "return" some books early. Why?)
• Stops the quoting of passages for future use.

Overall - what Surrey Libraries have done is take an amazing service and cripple it.  The potential is there - they just need their mindset moved to the 21st century.