Reading and literacy certainly have changed since the advent of the internet, and even more since e-Books like Kindle and Nook have been developed. I have to admit, I've never had a smartphone or an e-reader, so I don't really know what it's like to read off of such a tiny screen, but seeing as computers in general are going more and more mobile, and books are becoming more and more closely tied to computers, it stands to reason that the wave of the future is portable, electronic books.
Reading through the recommended articles, I came across some conflicting information. "Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" argues that kids are reading less and less books, and the debate grows as to whether this is increasing their adaptability for living in a digital world, or is merely destroying their attention spans and understanding of literature. On the other hand, "Fiction Reading Increases for Adults" claims that reading levels have increased pretty much across the board, especially for the 18 to 24 year old group, so I don't really know what to think. I don't own a whole lot of books, but I always have an assortment of books to read for fun, either from friends or the library, and I don't really enjoy flipping around in online books, which I've had to do for some classes. I know search features and readability are improving, but I find it much easier to locate information that I know I saw a ways back in a physical book than in an electronic one.
As for the wide variety of suggested tools, I looked at a few. DailyLit looks like fun (if you have a phone that can download RSS feeds), since you can choose which book to receive installments of, the times and days you want the installments (like, if you read on your way to work), and how large of chunks you want to get at a time. It's a good way to read books for people who feel like they don't actually have time to read, and lots of the books are free. What Should I Read Next? was fun, also, and gave rather good results for me; searching any given one of my favorite books usually brought up a slew of other books that I'd read and enjoyed, but a few searches also gave me a bunch of authors I've never heard of before, so I'll have to do more cross-checking and look into them. For "Online Book Communities," Book Glutton was interesting in that many of the recommended books seemed to be manuals, especially computer-programming manuals, while Overbooked was rather difficult to navigate... I mean, what's the difference between "Genre" and "Nonfiction" and "Lit Styles"? It seems like the kind of thing where any given book or subject could fall under a multitude of headings, and you really have to guess as to where it is. LitLovers seemed like a very good place to go if you're trying to put together book groups or discussions; it has discussion guides for tons of popular books, as well as advice for how to put together and run a club and even offers short online courses for self-study. LibriVox uses volunteers to read and record books as audiobooks, which they then post free online; I've never been an audiobook fan, but I know they can come in handy, especially for long trips, and this seems like a good project. BookBrowse offers book reviews and excerpts from just about everywhere for just about everything - a lot of the other recommended book review sites didn't have a lot of obscure titles that I checked for, but BookBrowse seemed to have nearly all of them. They have good Find-A-Book features, Author searches, and Readalike categories, so it's a very well-rounded site.
What does this all mean for libraries? I'm really not sure... except that there are a lot more options available than regular print books. I think it's important for librarians, especially public librarians, to look more into these kinds of sites, pick out some favorites, learn how to use them, and start promoting them. If the world is going digital, librarians can try to keep up. And, just because someone prefers looking online through Readers Advisory sites rather than talking to librarians in hopes of coming up with a good book doesn't mean that they won't still wind up at the library looking to actually find and read it in the end.
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