Libraries of Russia: eReaders unveiled at Vladimir Regional Youth Library
The Vladimir Regional Youth Library has launched an experiment which consists in introduction of eReaders – devices for reading electronic books.
At its disposal the youth library has three eReaders, each may contain up to 5,000 literary works. In prospect eReaders implementation has a considerable economic advantage over the prints – reader’s price amounts to 10 – 15 thousand rubles, whereas an average price of a traditional physical book reaches 300-400 rubles.
The experiment aims to identify readers’ demand for eBooks and develop new forms of work with the library’s holdings. As for today, oblast libraries’ holdings are mainly filled with books, issued in Soviet time. This literature is still of a huge demand. But in several years libraries’ book holdings will be written off as a result of an irreversible process. Therefore digital counterparts are expected to become an alternative to “prints”.