From The Wall Street Journal:
For generations, the New York Public Library has given cardholders the opportunity to head to their local branch and borrow a book. Since 2005, it also has provided them with the option of going online and checking out an e-book.
Now, the library is going a step further and posting classic novels and short stories to its account on Instagram, the Facebook Inc. -owned photo- and video-sharing platform.
The new service, dubbed “Insta Novels,” will be available to all Instagram users starting Wednesday, regardless of whether they have a NYPL card or live in New York City.
The library is starting with just one offering: Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” In the months that follow, it plans to add two more: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Franz Kafka’s novella, “The Metamorphosis.”
The idea is to use Instagram to promote reading in general and the NYPL brand in particular, library officials said. It also aims to show that libraries are changing with the times and fully adapting to the digital era.
“We want people to understand that libraries aren’t just those brick-and-mortar places full of dusty books,” said Christopher Platt, the NYPL’s chief branch library officer.
. . . .
The technology works in such a way that when readers are on the Instagram app, they hold the page of a book by resting their thumb on the screen, library officials said. They turn the page by lifting their thumb.
The experience is “unmistakably like reading a paperback novel,” Corinna Falusi, Mother in New York’s partner and chief creative officer, said in a statement.
. . . .
Michael D. D. White, co-founder of Citizens Defending Libraries, a New York City-based watchdog group, said the emphasis on online reading works against the idea of libraries as physical spaces where books are curated and knowledge is shared.
“It diminishes the sense of place and purpose,” he said.
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal
Here’s a link to the kickoff post of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that worked for PG. Click on the Play symbol.
Ebooks and audiobooks are theoretically available through my county and state library systems. (they’re not the same; different funding, for one)
Both apparenty signed on with some third-party “provider” with hilariously broken software; content is only accessible through special software, which runs only on the latest Windows or Apple operating systems, *and* requires a live internet connection for DRM authentication…
No, not going there…
So now they can say ‘there’s an app for that!’
Though it does sound like you have to stay connected the whole time while reading.
More power to them, but I’ll stick with my kindle (and me mom will stick to hers, she likes how easy the SAPL makes it to pick out and download their ebooks. San Antonio Public Library.)
You can get your mom a Houston library card, the non-resident fee is waived for Texas residents. Compare the offerings on the SAPL and Houston sites and see if it’s worth it to make the drive.
I have five California library cards – you only have to be a state resident to get one in most areas. Suffice it to say that Los Angeles offers many more overdrive books than Redding.
To look into, thanks!