Tech Blog

[#1]

There's nothing I like more than free, and over the last few years I've been fascinated at the free culture that's been developing online. Google gives away free online office suites. OpenOffice.org lets you download their office suite for offline use. Authors and publishers are giving their books away.

And, of course, there's a book discussing this Free cultural phenomenon, appropriately called Free: The future of a radical price. You guessed it, free legal eBook and audio-book versions of the book are available online, just follow the link.

But the best type of free, in my humble opinion, is the type of free that benefits your local community or society. For me, this type of free happens at the Edmonton Public Library (EPL).

Ok, you say, it's not really free, you have to pay for an annual library membership. True, you do, but the price is so small that for the majority of us it may as well be free. Here's the full fee structure but this part caught my attention:

Annual Borrower's Fee

• Children under 18 - Free
• First adult per household - $12
  • Other adults per household - $8
  • Household maximum - $36
• If you are unable to pay the basic fee, you will be given a free membership for one year.

Notice that last bullet. Any resident of Edmonton qualifies for a free one-year membership and to all the benefits and privileges of library membership. Which means that many people who simply cannot afford 'luxury' items can get access to one of the most important and basic items -- access to knowledge.

The library's website is very simple and accessible by even the lowliest netbook, and library branches all have many Internet enabled workstations for patrons and guests to use.

Right, so the EPL is benefiting society, but how? Well, the EPL is not your average library either, here's why:

• Spanky-new Social Media enabled online catalogue search and reservation system which enables lists, ratings and more.
• The library's website is pretty low tech and accessible by even the lowliest netbook, and library branches all have many Internet enabled workstations for patrons and guests to use.
• In 2007 they introduced a FaceBook app that lets you explore their catalogue.
• They're active on Twitter.
• Free in-branch Wi-Fi (should you bring your own netbook or laptop).
• They lend Xbox 360 video games in most branches.
• They've had online streaming music for years.
• You can 'borrow' digital copies of books, music, audio books, and videos (many DRM free).
• You can read over 800 digital copies of newspapers, almost all of them on the day they're published.

You don't need to even visit the library to 'borrow' these digital assets as they're all downloadable.

But the newest and coolest feature is in the first bullet above, the new catalogue system. Think of an online bookstore with users, ratings, reviews and the like...now apply this to your local library. Awesome.

I've followed the e-development of my library with interest over the last couple of years, and I'm very proud to say they're still impressing me.

Ok, enough about my library, tell me about yours! What tech is your library using that makes you say 'Cool!'?

Message Edited by bgrier on 08-31-2009 11:17 PM