Bexar County, Texas, Judge Nelson W. Wolff, is pushing plans for the nation’s first bookless public library. Of course, the Judge doesn’t really mean bookless, he’s really thinking about an ebook library – but bookless sounds cooler. Anyway, he envisions a digital library that he’s calling BiblioTech and he proposes to make thousands of volumes available for Bexar County residents both online and in a physical library. County residents with a library card could check out books on their own smartdevices or borrow a take-home ereader. “If you want to get an idea what it looks like, go into an Apple store,” Wolff said. While I applaud the idea, this has been tried before and most public institutions have met with some kind of public outcry. Of course, Bexar County, Texas has never had a public library before, so there’s no legacy system for people to compare it too. It’s digital, it’s crazy, but it just might work.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.