For the first time in the Vancouver Public Library's history, loans of digital materials, like e-books, e-magazines and music, have exceeded those of physical copies at the library, although online facsimiles costing three to five times as much.

The milestone is a win for accessibility, but could compound an ongoing problem for libraries, which is being able to pay for enough digital materials to meet demand and have significant collections of them compared to physical versions.

“It wasn't as critical in the early days just because digital content didn't have the popularity then,” said Kay Cahill, the Vancouver Public Library’s (VPL) director of collections and technology.

“But the more it's increased in popularity and the more ... we're putting our collection budget towards it, it's b

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