How Digital Libraries Helped The World Cope With Covid-19

 

When Apple introduced the Newton back in 1993 it created a powerful handheld tool for the consumption of books in electronic form, it even came with its dedicated format (the Newton Book) and later a fork of the Project Gutenberg electronic collection of out of copyright books called Project Newtonberg. It was my first introduction to electronic book reading - and as I transitioned from Newton to Palm to Windows Mobile; and eventually to Android and iOS, the first piece of software I sought for each platform would be an eBook reader.

Ten years ago publishers and libraries, mostly driven by third parties like Overdrive, began to offer usable collections of eBooks through apps on smartphones and tablets. Yes, Amazon and the Kindle owned most of the mind share, but Overdrive and the libraries which offered the service gradually increased their offering and saw increasing uptake as a result.

Last year, when the pandemic arrived and most of the world went into lockdown under shelter in place orders, the systems were there to cope with the increased demand for eBook lending resulting from universal library closures.

In the UK 30% of the population made use of library services virtually, to borrow Ebooks, Emagazines and audio books; helping to maintain a degree of sanity through the insanity.

In the US some libraries saw electronic media usage grow by over 60%. More than a hundred libraries saw a million or more checkouts from their systems. 

Like so much of what happened during the pandemic, from online learning to online shopping, the digital library was a service a long time in the making which is likely to go from strength to strength. It's one of the ways in which we can say that we were lucky the pandemic arrived when it did and not a decade or two earlier.