E-Books Now Available at all Libraries in Starke County Library System

E-Books and E-Audio Books have come to the Starke County Library system. Library Director, Sheila Urwiler, talks about the service.

“You get to check them out for one to two weeks, and at the end of the period the title just expires. So there are no late fees, you can’t be charged for anything. It’s a free service. We think people will really enjoy it.” Urwiler said.

We asked Sheila how many books are available.

“Oh, several thousand, and its growing rapidly. We’re part of a consortium, with other Northern Indiana libraries. Because of that, we are able to offer a lot more titles than we could if we just had to build the collection on our own. It’s both E-Books and E-Audio Books where you can download a book and listen to it.”

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Digital Books to Replace Libraries?

Henry F. Schricker Library

What’s the future of libraries in the digital age? We posed that question recently to Shelia Urwiler, Director of the Starke County Library system.

“E-books are changing the library landscape quite a bit and no one is one hundred percent sure how that’s going to work out,” said Urwiler. “We do know that we are going to transition more to e-books and less print eventually. I heard a speaker say that he thinks it will be in the next two to three years – I think that’s a little overestimating. I think we’re looking more at 15 to 20 before print really is more for special collections and archives.”

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