Audio: 3M's Cloud Library Discussed on Minnesota Public Radio

From a Text Summary:

Millions of Americans now own Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers. And libraries are taking notice, expanding their collections of e-books they can loan to patrons.
That trend has 3M’s attention. The company has a long history of serving libraries. And 3M sees a big business opportunity in helping libraries build, manage and lend their collections of electronic books.
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“Being a company with a strong technology history, we have an opportunity to really come in and innovate and create the best platform for libraries to lend e-books to a community,” said Tom Mercer, who is leading the marketing efforts for 3M’s Cloud Library service. At this time, e-books are just a small part of library collections. But Mercer says those collections will grow and libraries will need help managing them.
“We see a very large opportunity as libraries shift their spend from physical material to digital material,” he said. “By about 2015, a third of all books sold will be digital in the United States.”

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Filed under: Libraries, Patrons and Users, Publishing