Tow #1 - A Bookless Library Opens in San Antonio by Josh Sanburn

This is an inside view of the Bexar County Digital Library, the nation's first all-digital public library. Notice how there are no printed materials, but only computers and e-books. This future library is now here. Source: http://bexarbibliotech.org

            In his writing A Bookless Library Opens in San Antonio,  Josh Sanburn makes the lovers of their e-readers consider whether or not a bookless library is really a library. The author starts off his writing with the description of Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff who opened the nation's first all-digital public library. The ironic thing is, Wolff used to detest the idea of digital reading, and he still does not own a single e-reader. According to Sanburn, the library that was built with county tax money and private donations are filled with computers, iPads and laptops, but does not have any printed material. The author soon explains that libraries are adapting to new technologies and drifting away from print to provide different programs and services. However, there are funding problems for libraries, and conflicts with publishers over e-book access that might hurt Bexar County Digital Library. Because e-books never has to be replaced and can be shared among multiple library branches, Publishers feel justified in raising the prices of the e-books or not selling them to libraries. This is a big problem for the library because people might not use the library if they cannot find the e-book they are looking for, but Wolff believes that everything will work fine if he supports the library with his annual budget. Throughout his article, Sanburn includes many statistics to back off his points, making his writing very credible. The author interacts with his readers by using the word "you" such as in the sentence, "Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff isn’t the man you’d imagine as the visionary for the nation’s first all-digital public library" (Sanburn). He also uses the irony shown above as a hook, which allows the readers to quickly grow curious about the topic. His writing gives straight facts to allow the readers to decide whether digital libraries are a good idea, which might be the reason why Sanburn wrote the article in the first place. I believe that he achieved his purpose by remaining neutral throughout the entire writing.