THE LIBRARY GOES DIGITAL

Library service in the future will continue to go digital. New York's libraries have taken some significant steps, though in some cases they lag behind innovators.

The New York Public Library has been a leader in digitizing hard-copy resources like archival photos for online access Forthcoming Projects include 'Black New York' and early maps (1660-1850) of the Middle Atlantic Seaboard. The Brooklyn library now plans to digitize images from its Brooklyn collection.

All three New York libraries now let offsite users access subscription-only databases that contain everything from photo indexes to biographies to news archives. Type in your library card number and work from home.

That increasingly versatile library card may morph into a value-laden "smartcard" that can be used for printing or pay fines. Cardholders already can renew books online at the New York Public Library.

Just as libraries are learning from Barnes & Noble, so the online bookseller Amazon.com has raised user expectations for library Web sites; why shouldn't online library catalogs also show the book cover and excerpts from reviews? Some libraries have launched such advanced catalogs; they should arrive in New York in coming years.

New York Public has begun to offer electronic books via the online netLibrary. Other libraries even lend portable e-book readers loaded with several titles. A few have even started to circulate digital audiobooks on MP3 players, which eliminates the bulky set of cassettes or CDs needed for a lengthy unabridged reading.

Given that many people now seek answers from the Internet rather than ask a librarian, reference service is going digital as well. Numerous libraries nationally (including New York Public and Queens) allow people to ask questions via a web form or e-mail; a librarian will reply by e-mail.

That, of course, takes time. So a few libraries nationally have begun "real-time reference," in which an Internet user "chats" with the librarian on screen; the librarian then steers the user's browser to the appropriate web sites. New York Public now proposes to launch "online, round-the-clock reference services," especially in areas like health, job, and homework information.

Norman Oder