Conference Paper: “Ebooks: Has a Content Divide Replaced the Digital Divide?”

Columbus Metropolitan Library serves a diverse population ranging from poverty to affluent. While we can’t be all things to all people, we strive to democratize access to information, ideas and services so all of our customers can live and compete in this digitally driven society. More than 20 years ago public libraries recognized the digital divide and found solutions to dramatically diminish it. Today libraries face a content divide driven by the problem of ebook access for our customers. In order to remain relevant, public libraries must be able to provide our customers with the popular ebooks and digital content they want and need. The current publishing landscape has not been conducive to this broad access, so library leaders must work together on strategies to change it.