City library to be e- and free

According to the proposed plan, the e-books will have a fixed issue period after which they cannot be accessed. Issuing will be free of cost and can be at any location with an internet facility.

“We have chalked out the plan on e-library. We only have to make a proposal,” Rajashekhar K Badigannavara, Deputy Director of the Library told Deccan Herald.  He said e-library was a natural progression after the success of mobile libraries. Nineteen mobile libraries have been functioning across the State.

While the initiative is a first for the public sector, a private organisation has been successfully practising the model for the past ten years. www.easylib.com has been running an e-library since 2001. The website offers various books - fiction, non-fiction, children’s books etc. To ‘borrow’ e-books, one must become a member, which comes with a registration fee of Rs 250 and a deposit of Rs 500.

Each e-book will be issued for a period of two weeks at 10 per cent of the price of the book. An extension comes with an extra charge.

Says Vani Mahesh, the founder of easylib.com: “You may want to read an expensive book that you do not want to buy. In that case, e-books are more profitable as you can get them for only 10 per cent of the book price.” She adds that the site receives around 1,800 issues a month. Added to this advantage, the site offers mobile browsing for e-books.

A young reader, Aneesha Bhaskar says: “I love reading e-books as they are way more convenient than the hardbound. They are easily accessible anywhere and at any time you want to read, with an internet connection.”

Whether it is free of cost or for a price, e-books are increasingly becoming everybody’s favourite and will continue to hold sway.