The main purpose of public libraries should be to provide books. Public libraries should not spend their limited resources on computer software, videos or DVDs. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

No one can deny that computer has become an inevitable device in almost every field of education. Gradually they are replacing books in schools, colleges and public libraries. Such innovative ideas are having more advantages which we will discuss on three aspects: Economic, Social and Personal view.

In economic point of view, although bringing in computers and its accessories into public libraries are expensive; in the long run, it would save more money. For example, an e-book can be downloaded and saved for years whereas a book needs replacement. Moreover book maintenance is a tedious process, as it is more fragile while CD’s and DVD’s are easy to maintain and store.

From social perspective, libraries with modern equipment are saving time of their customers. For instance, many people read in the library because they cannot carry heavy books all through the way to home. Books stored in the CD’s are easy to carry and handle. Furthermore it gives them the autonomy to read according to their convenient time. Most importantly, it takes a minimum of three to five days to read a book as a result the book cannot be lent to another customer, on the other hand, e-books can be accessed by many people at a time therefore it cater to the needs of larger public.

In personal viewpoint, there is no harm in public libraries investing their time and finance on improvising their infrastructure. It is necessary to keep in pace with rapidly developing technology. Those libraries which do not adapt to newer age would probably lose their customers and slowly public libraries would become a history.

In a nutshell, the government libraries should upgrade their technology and cater to the needs of modern public in modern way.