Cord Cutting Tips, E-Books & Democracy & Tablet Sales To Overtake PC Sales By 2015

Cord Cutting Tips: The USA Today featured an article over the weekend titled “5 things to know before cutting cable” which offers some helpful hints for those considering ditching their cable TV subscriptions to stream video from the Internet to their television sets. The tips include being aware that live TV access is limited, that you really need to purchase two streaming boxes like the Apple TV and the Roku player to get the best access to streaming video content and that you can, if you’re not careful – actually spend more money on buying digital videos for a family then you might if you simply paid for a cable subscription package.

Here’s a link to the article which offers more in-depth information on the subject of cord cutting:

http://usat.ly/19a3rsu

E-Books & Democracy: The New York Times featured an editorial on e-books earlier this month that I wanted to share – I just didn’t want to overwhelm everyone by going on too much about e-books at one time so I waited to share the editorial article. The editorial is by Anthony Marx and is titled “EBooks & Democracy” and in it the author notes the basic reasons why public library access to e-books for all patrons is essential in a democratic nation. For example, he notes that   “E-book readership is rising much faster than readership of print books; digital books could soon be the most popular book format. Readership of our e-books soared 168 percent from 2011 to 2012; print circulation, while much larger, remained constant;” and that “For those who cannot afford to buy downloads, digital books from libraries are essential to improving literacy, civic engagement and the technological facility necessary for economic success.” And the author further notes, in relation, that public libraries are currently hindered in their quest to offer patrons access to all e-books by two major things:

1. The fact that some publishers won’t sell e-books to public libraries

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2. That some of the publishers that do sell e-books to public libraries sell them at an exceptionally high price. And as the Acquisitions Librarian at the Southeast Steuben County Library I can tell you that both points are true and that second point – about the high prices – boy is Mr. Marx right on the money with that – I see Random House titles in particular – new e-book titles that cost $85 – $100 for one e-book!

And that is my mini-stand, and of course Anthony Marx’s too, on the e-book owners/public libraries rights band wagon for today!

Here’s the link to the New York Times editorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/e-books-libraries-and-democracy.html

Tablet Sales To Overtake PC Sales By 2015: Bloomberg Business Week offers an article today titled “Tablets Seen Overtaking Personal Computers by 2015” and it discusses the fact that as the price of tablets comes down more and more people are, and will increasingly be, purchasing inexpensive tablets to surf the web, read their email, Skype and play games upon and that as a result tablet sales will surpass the sales of personal computer by 2015 – so I think that is interesting because it shows a shift in how people access information going from accessing information on a computer (desktop or laptop as home or the office) as has been the case since the late nineties to instead accessing that information on a tablet, or smartphone, from anywhere people happened to be at any time of the day or night.

Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-05-28/pc-market-to-decline-7-dot-8-percent-in-2013-as-tablets-smartphones-gain

Have a great day!

Linda R.

P.S. And don’t forget if you just bought, or received as a gift a new tablet, e-reader, PC or other tech item and would like to know more about how to use it — you can make an appointment at the library for a free On-On-One tech session and a member of our tech team will show you the digital ropes! Call the Reference Desk at: 607-936-3713 to make an appointment! Did I mention it is a free service the library offers? It is! 

References

Komando, Kim. (2013, May 24). 5 things to know before cutting cable. USA Today.

Marx, Anthony. (2013, May 1). E-Book and Democracy. New York Times. Online.

Rapaport, Lisa., & Ricadela, Aaron. (2013. May 28). Tablets Seen Overtaking Personal Computers by 2015, IDC Says (1). Bloomberg Businessweek. Online.