Amazon is apparently in talks to launch a digital-books library run on the same premise as Netflix. For an annual fee, readers can read themselves silly on e-books of their choosing. There are no details available as to how advanced this process has moved, but it does make us wonder about the impact on brick and mortar libraries.

Technology Review from MIT brought this topic to our attention in their post, “Will Amazon’s ‘Digital Library’ Kill the Physical One? Let’s Hope Not.” It isn’t a new topic by any means. We’ve pondered similar questions in the past, but this latest move seems to have taken the issue to a higher level.

I am a little ambivalent on the issue. Having moved to the “dark side” earlier this year and purchased a Kindle, I admit to being a little excited about the prospect of “renting a book” at my leisure. But not at the expense of the smell of leather, feel of paper and respect for the years of knowledge compiled into one location.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.