The Nation's First Fully Digital Public Library

Hays, A. (2014, April). The Nation’s First Fully Digital Public Library: How a Texas County Made it Happen. Retrieved from http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/05/the-nations-first-fully-digital-public-library-how-a-texas-county-made-it-happen/

Summary:

This article discussed the opening of a completely digital library in San Antonio, Texas. The library is the first of its kind in the United States and it open its doors in September of 2013. This library’s collection is entirely digital. There are IPad, e-readers, laptops, computers, and interactive tables for community members to access their collection. The library also includes community activity rooms, group study rooms, and a cafe. There is Wi-Fi connection available within the library so that library patrons can access the digital collections. There is not one book in the entire library. 

Evaluation:

This new digital library is a first picture of what 21st-century libraries could look like as libraries become more modernized.  Collections have increasingly become digital and this public libraries bold jump to an entirely digital collection demonstrates to other libraries that they can still be relevant in a digital age. This library's collection is a blueprint for libraries of the future to follow. Libraries cannot meet the needs of modern users with the traditional print format. Libraries need to reimagine and reenvisions themselves in the 21st-century.