E-reader material now at Beach library
Weekly Activity Details
Preschool Story Hour is scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, at 10:30 a.m.
Knitting group meets June 2, at 6:30 p.m. Beginners are always welcome. The group enjoys both sharing knitting tips and conversation, and the conversation is usually lively.
Tissue Paper Art class on Thursday, June 3, at 10:30 a.m. Pre-register and $3 materials fee. For those who have always wanted to do art, but think they can’t or were afraid to try. Also for artists who for whatever reason gave up painting or sketching or carving.
Upcoming Activity
Ideas to aid those who are using a digital camera to increase fuller utilization of their equipment will be the focus on June 8, at 10:30 a.m.
Print and Digital
We are happy that e-readers like the iPad, Nook and Kindle are available. Some tout their arrival and that print is bound to become a relic. We question that assessment and find looking at the full picture is helpful.
Reporters Daniel Coleman and Gregory Norris recently evaluated the ecological impact of the e-reader and book, from the first tree cut down for paper to the day that hardcover decomposes in the dump. Are the e-readers “green” enough?
One e-reader requires the extraction of 33 pounds of minerals. It also requires 79 gallons of water to produce its batteries and printed wiring boards and in refining metals like the gold used in trace quantities in the circuits.
A book made with recycled materials consumes about two-thirds of a pound of minerals. And it requires two gallons of water to make the pulp slurry that is then pressed and heat-dried to make paper.
The e-reader’s manufacture uses 100 kilowatt hours of fossil fuels and resulting in 66 pounds of carbon dioxide. A single book, which, recycled or not, requires energy to form and dry the sheets, is two kilowatt hours, and 100 times fewer greenhouse gases.
If you order a book online and have it shipped 500 miles by air, that creates roughly the same pollution and waste as making the book in the first place. Driving five miles to the library and back causes about 10 times the pollution and resource depletion as producing it. You’d need to drive to the state library in Tallahassee to create the equivalent in toxic impacts on health of making one e-reader.
Evenhanded & Lively
David Aaronovitch in “Voodoo Histories: the role of the Conspiracy Theory in shaping modern history” (909.08 AAR) tackles the question of why people accept as factual things that are provably untrue. If you’ve read “Why People Believe Weird Things” (133 SHE), you will want to read Aaronovitch’s work. Most of the conspiracy theories are here from 9/11 as an inside job to faked moon landings to the noncitizenship of Barack Obama.
Library Hours
When we are closed, a recorder gives the hours of operation, either on 765-8162 or on 765-8163. Except for holidays, which would be mentioned on the recorder, we are open Monday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. We look forward to seeing you.
By Dr. Leroy Hommerding