If you doubt that we are aggressively embracing the digital age, you need look no further than headlines in the business pages earlier this week. The office supplies giant, Staples Canada, is planning to close 40 of its 330 stores. This is because of pressure not from discounters but e-commerce, a trend that is hitting many big box stores. That would be stuff bought and sold bought online.
Staples is not the first outlet to shrink its number of retail outlets as a result. It's following at least one other, electronics specialist Best Buy Canada, down this road.
And retail isn't the only area where the digital age is causing changes. This week, city council saw a presentation for a $30 million roll-out of their digital strategy. It is one, we are being told, that will "support the social and economic development of Vancouver" over the next four years. Business loves this.
And it "ensure that citizens have multiple ways to access and engage with the city." Among other things, if you can't make it to a public open house on a new project, you can still add your views online.
Vancouver is far from the cutting edge on this. While we are not leading, Mayor Gregor Robertson says, "We are on the radar." In fact, we are following in the footsteps of such leaders as New York and Chicago.
The bulk of that dough - $28 million - was approved unanimously by council a month ago and will be used to transform the licenses and permits process. Soon, building inspectors, for example, will be able to do all their work in the field without returning to the office to research or file reports.
Some of you may still want to let your fingers do the walking and use a telephone book and a telephone to make your way through the labyrinth at city hall. Most of you will have your fingers working your iPhones, iPads or home/office computer keyboards to ask your questions or file your requests.
If you find yourself on the wrong side of the "digital divide," you are not alone. But in this part of the world you are definitely in a minority. Council this week heard that while Statistics Canada determined in 2010 that only 54 per cent of households with incomes of $30,000 or less have home Internet access, 97 per cent of households in the top bracket of the study - with incomes of $87,000 or more - are plugged into the Internet.
In Vancouver, 83 per cent of all households have Internet access and only five per cent of the homes with Internet access are using low-speed dial up.
The digital strategy presentation to council was made by the "project sponsor," Vancouver's chief librarian Sandra Singh. When she was hired in 2010, she was the youngest head librarian at a major Canadian library. And her hiring was considered a generational change.
While she admitted at the time she didn't even own an iPad, the institution she heads has exploded as a centre providing what are called "e-
resources."
From downloadable books to free use of computers, the public library is booming. According to Singh, in 2012 the library offered more than 80 free basic and advanced computer, Internet and social media courses reaching more than 700 participants.
She points out those library users who can't afford costly data plans rely on free wireless at any branch. (And you don't even have to nurse a coffee to stay there.) Wireless sessions increased from close to 178,000 in 2009 to more than 590,000 in 2012.
There will also be a growing raft of self-serve technology being installed as part of this strategy.
And that raised the question of employment. If I'm serving myself, I don't need a clerk.
Singh agrees and says that, in fact, the library will take advantage of that by redeploying the freed up staff. Expect an announcement soon that, after years of public demands, more of Vancouver's libraries will be open Sunday.
That would be for those of you who still go to libraries and don't get your reading material online.
