At public libraries across Metro Vancouver, you can now check out books 24 hours a day. Better yet, you can check them out from the comfort of your home and start reading within minutes - that is, if you have an e-reader.

With the rise and advancement of new technologies over the past decade, we have witnessed the demise of several industries, most recently the fall of movie rental stores. Libraries seem determined to avoid the same fate, and they see e-readers as a way to stay relevant.

"I've noticed that our online resources have gone up, while our book content as far as encyclopedias has gone down," said Joann Pierre, a library technician in Delta. Pierre has been with the library in Tsawwassen for 14 years.

"We still have a huge range in our popular fiction, but when it comes to text-like things, it's mostly online."

It's clear some are interested in this new technology, as 22 people attended an e-book seminar at George Mackie Library in North Delta on Jan. 11. By the same token, some readers seem resistant to the idea of electronic books.

"I've resisted, I haven't hit it with a hammer yet," said Dennis Shalkie, talking about his Kobo Vox eReader. "It's extremely frustrating, especially for a novice."

The seminar was focused on showing attendees how to use their e-readers and to promote the usage of bclibraries.ca, which loans e-books to holders of library cards.

There are many benefits of borrowing books from bclibraries. ca, including no fees for late e-books.

Some hope the addition of e-books to local libraries will help them remain relevant in an increasingly more digital world.

"We have to stay relevant, we have to stay up with technology," Pierre said. "I know that people two years ago said they would never use an e-reader, and now those same people are coming back with e-readers. I do see that libraries will always be around, we will always have libraries, it's just the role in society that we play may change.

"I think our next step would be to offer streaming video."

Post-secondary institutions in the region have had online collections of e-books, mostly in the form of text books, for several years now. Elaine Samwald, a Kwantlen Polytechnic University librarian, said the KPU library has an online e-book collection available free to students.

Although bclibraries.ca has been well received, it, like many other online libraries, has had to battle publishers and authors to allow enough copies to be provided for its users.

"Think about the authors," Pierre said. "Once a book is in e-format, that is forever, downloaded over and over and over again, and they're not ever going to see a penny after that first purchase."

twitter@MattBossons