Digital and Audio Books
One of the main challenges facing the National Library over the last years is collecting books and other publications in the digital world. In 2015, 225 electronic books were deposited in the Library. Another digital format gaining momentum is the audio book. 270 books published in 2015 recorded by the iCast company, were added to the Library, including recordings of children's books, the latest prose, literary classics and more. This year, poetry was also added to this format.
One of the main initiatives in the digital field this year was the collection of digital newspapers. Today, newspapers appear in a variety of forms, including printed newspapers, content sites, newsletters distributed via electronic mailing lists, and more. The Library is working on building a large and growing digital collection in this area, which includes over 200 newspapers, which will become a digital collection in the future. Newspapers arrive as files sent from the publishers or can be downloaded from the internet.
These activities are carried out in parallel to the archiving of copies of Israeli internet sites in ARCHINET: Israeli Internet Archive.
Director of the National Library Oren Weinberg, summarizing the annual report of the National Library, says that in recent years there has been increased awareness among publishers to send books, newspapers and all other relevant publications to the National Library, which has greatly enhanced the Library's ability to estimate and measure the information received as well as make sure that the Library's collections encompass the breadth of the publications in the State of Israel.
"By correctly analyzing the patterns of the publishers, we are able to trace fads and trends in Israeli culture. For example, changing emphasis in Israeli literature may confirm changes in the public's areas of interest and recreational reading habits," says Weinberg.
In his view, as regards the Law for the Protection of Literature and Writers in Israel, the report does not indicate a dramatic change in the scope of book publishers in the last years and there is no dramatic change in the number of publishers of debut books.
Changes following the introduction of the digital book also have been slow, but the increase in the variety and performance of devices supporting Hebrew may increase use of this digital format, and all the implications thereof.