Part of LSU Middleton Library’s collection is open at all hours, though many students desperate to finish a research paper at late hours are unaware of the service. The library’s online catalog, which offers more than 400,000 e-books, is available to students at any time of day. Director of the School of Library & Information Science Beth Paskoff said this availability is appealling for students. “E-books are very convenient. Students can access them without coming to the library building. That makes them very attractive, especially when you’re writing a paper that’s due in the morning,” Paskoff said. Only 12 percent of adult e-book readers have borrowed an e-book from a library this past year, according to a Pew Research Center study, and most Americans do not know if their libraries provide e-books. Academic libraries such as Middleton – which has offered e-books for about a decade – tend to only carry e-books for research, while public libraries like East Baton Rouge Parish Library have e-books for leisure as well as research. “Nationally, the number of [e-book] titles per campus just about doubled between 2010 and 2011,” Paskoff said. Middleton continues to purchase more titles in an electronic format, according to Tom Diamond, head of reference and collection of development services. “We need to continue working to make students aware that e-books are available for research,” he said. Emilie Smart, EBR Library reference and computer services coordinator, said the public libraries however “can’t keep up with demand” of e-books, which, like Middleton, can be downloaded outside the library. “That being said, there’s still a lot of people who don’t know we have them,” Smart said. University students who don’t have a permanent address within EBR parish can still obtain a library card and enjoy its services with proof of enrollment. “You have lots of popular fiction where you wouldn’t get the library at LSU,” Smart said. Despite the convenience, Smart said, print books will never become obsolete. “You can’t borrow [e-books] from somebody. You can’t lend them to somebody. You can’t donate them, and you can’t sell them,” she said. “I think people are going to miss their books.” 
 
____ Contact Danielle Kelly at [email protected]