The only interest I have in electronic readers is for reference books. While I would never give up my 5000+ book collection I wouldn’t mind losing the shelves of computer reference manuals and having those go electronic. It would also be a great boon to students of all ages who have to haul heavy textbooks.

In light of that prediction, paper books are the epitome of an old technology with some improvements still to come. They are faster and easier to read, more portable and much more durable than a small electronic reader, and more transportable from one person to another.

In fact, they are still much better than any electronic form because they involve most of the senses thus fully engaging the brain. it will be a long time before a computer does that with the printed word. (In spite of my love of blogs.)

I believe that if the love of books is introduced in the very early years, before video-games become a competitiion, the connection to books will survice, even if it becomes dormant during some periods of development.
The evidence is mostly anecdotal, as studies of learning seldom separate learning from books from learning from computer programs.
But the anecdotal evidence is powerful

When small neighborhood libraries are closed, children’s reading hours vanish. Parents working multiple jobs have little time to provide reading hours of their own.
Those are bad signs.

To ensure a steady supply of book addicts and book preservers, we’ve got to figure out how to preserve the connection to books in the very early years. That connection stems from listening as books are read by adults: the reading hours.

My 12 year old granddaughter, who hated school and learning grades 1-4, but now loves both, just wrote an essay about her memories of being read to when she was little. That’s pretty powerful anecdotal evidence to me. Being mentioned in the essay was one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.

There are prototypes already in the works.

But this is bad news for highlighters and Post-its.

Yes, the crisis in local library financing is awful and gets far too little attention. Merely preserving the larger hub libraries in cities and at universities is not enough.

I grew up in a small town and it was always a thrill to visit the Bookmobile when it made its weekly stop down the street. Alas, that experience is pretty much gone today.

One thing that you didn’t mention about the continuation of libraries is financial. There are many, many local libraries that are cutting back, closing branches, and out right closing due to lack of funds. In my ‘metro area’ there are six libraries for a population of around 125k. Three of the libraries are part of colleges, the other three are for the three towns that make up the ‘metro area’. (This does not include the public school system.) This past year 300k was cut from the main city’s library budget. This prompted the closing of the last remaining ‘branch’ of the city library and between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the main library is closed on Sunday, their busiest day of the week.

Libraries are important, in my not so humble opinion, for the maintenance of society. For the desimination of information. For the repository of information (of whatever type). Libraries should not be limited to colleges and ‘big’ cities. Even though I haven’t opened many of my 200+ architectural history/historic preservation books in the past several years, they’re not leaving my house, if I have any say about it!!

I’d love to!