Quote:
Originally Posted by abookreader
Well, it is easy to think of eBooks as "high end" but that isn't always the case.
I can't recall ever seeing a direct comparison but I'd be willing to bet that on a per checkout basis, an eBook is cheaper than an inter-library loan of a DTB.
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Preach! (ILL tech here.)
As to the original question: Should libraries charge for ebooks? My gut reaction is "Dear God no!", but I think that it depends on what one means by "libraries." Are we talking public libraries that are funded by local taxes? Private libraries that rely on donations? Academic libraries? Each of these have different membership requirements, and depending on who a patron is, sometimes requiring payment is reasonable and sometimes I think it isn't.
For example: I work in an academic library. All of our services (inter-library loans, computer lab access, on and off-site print/media checkout, etc.) are free to faculty/staff/students. Alumni can have free access to
some of our services (they don't get computer lab logins and have to pay for ILL). Community members with no connection to the school pay an annual fee to be able to circulate local print/media titles AND have to pay for ILL. So, for a model like ours, where our budget comes from our administration via student tuition and constituent donations, charging non-students/faculty to access our new ebook collection (whenever we actually get it) would probably be a given -- if they were allowed access to it at all. I imagine a similar way of thinking would go into charging for services in other privately-funded libraries.
However, if it's a public library, that is funded by local citizens' taxes, I generally think charging extra for services to people who live within the library's jurisdiction is a bad idea. There's my knee-jerk reaction of not wanting to restrict public access to publicly-funded information coupled with my belief that, after the initial expense of setting up the system, ebook checkouts probably cost a library less than some more traditional services.