![\"800px-Bookshelf_Prunksaal_OeNB_Vienna_AT_matl00786ch\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/800px-Bookshelf_Prunksaal_OeNB_Vienna_AT_matl00786ch.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo by Matl, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
What’s left to be called a “library”?<\/p>\n
Denizens of the digital age will assure you that it’s all still there, only now it’s electronic.<\/p>\n
(Of course, you’ll just have to imagine the academic ambience.)<\/p>\n
<\/a>Photo by Dr. Marcus Gossler, GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
The United States’ first futuristic facility of this kind recently opened to the public in Bexar County, Texas.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Photo by Xataka, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
It’s called the BiblioTech library<\/a>, and it boasts about 10,000 free e-books, as well as audio books and e-readers. You can use your own reader, too, if you have the 3M Cloud Library app, which can be linked to your library card.<\/p>\n Yup, even a digital library still uses cards.<\/p>\n Lest you wonder if this is all just a figment of a cyber-savvy librarian’s fancy, the BiblioTech<\/p>\n (a play on “biblioth\u00e8que,” the French word for library)<\/p>\n actually does have a physical location, complete with 48 computer stations and meeting spaces (there are<\/i> tables and chairs!).<\/p>\n Plus, patrons can still bring their kids for a real, live story time and take computer classes to catch up with the rapidly changing times.<\/p>\n Are you ready for a “virtual library” in your neck of the woods?\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Picture a library without card catalogs, shelves, reading chairs, or \u2026 books? What’s left to be called a “library”? Denizens of the digital age will assure you that it’s all still there, only now it’s electronic. (Of course, you’ll just … Continue reading