Creating books in a library

Greetings from the reading room of the National Library of Australia in Canberra. The Library has about 20 web workstations available, as well as 20 reserved for looking up the catalog. You could, in theory, walk into the library with no equipment (or money) and produce a book. The library provides free access to research materials on paper and electronically. They also now supply the workstations so you could type the results of your research in, typeset it and publish it via an on-line print on demand system.

Last weekend I was in here reading a magazine (they have new books and periodicals on display) and decided to take some notes (which became part of my notes on Podcasting). I grabbed a sheet of paper and started scribbling on it. But I then realized I would have to transcribe this and could hardly read my own writing. So I walked over to a workstation and typed the notes straight in. To write this entry I have Blogger open in one window and a web search in another. It all works very well.

The coffee in the Library coffee shop is also good.