Libraries are changing

[speakingtohe]

I live in British Columbia Canada, and the excellent library to go (ebooks and audiobooks ) was my main reason to buy a reader.

Today I was looking at the Vancouver Public library and noticed that they are going to offer a supplementary library for Vancouver residents.

I next looked at the West Vancouver Library, the North Vancouver Library, and the Surrey Library.

Surrey lends out kindle ereaders, as does West Vancouver. Both come with a big selection (51) many bestsellers, in West Vancouver. One you can reserve an ereader, the other you can't.

Strangely the West Vancouver Library does not seem to even admit that the BC Library to Go exists.

Probably their are monetary reasons to splinter of from the provincial system, or senior employees with fear of losing their control, and most people won't even notice.

I will not have problems getting books from most libraries as I have cards for several and can legally get one for those I do not have.

But as it seems that the existing system is excellent, to split it up at this time is counter productive and provides no significant advantage to the existing user base.

For example: having 51 books on each of 12 kindles, means 612 books paid for (one hopes) by the public constantly out of circulation, assigned to the kindle reader borrowers, who may not even want to read those books. And while Harry Bloom can still read 3 books an hour, most of us would be hard pressed to read 2-3 books a day, so why 51 books for a 3 week loan.

And why kindle. AFAIK few if any kindle books are available for library loan in Canada. Some kindle readers are not even sold to Canadians.

Oh well, sorry to rant on. Will stop now for a bit.

Helen

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

For example: having 51 books on each of 12 kindles, means 612 books paid for (one hopes) by the public constantly out of circulation, assigned to the kindle reader borrowers, who may not even want to read those books. And while Harry Bloom can still read 3 books an hour, most of us would be hard pressed to read 2-3 books a day, so why 51 books for a 3 week loan.

Many ebooks have licenses allowing them to be loaded on 6 or more devices at once, you are over counting. Obviously not all books will appeal to all readers, so having a decent number of books provides enough selection for a wide variety of people.

And why kindle. AFAIK few if any kindle books are available for library loan in Canada. Some kindle readers are not even sold to Canadians.

Perhaps that's exactly the reason, since Kindle books aren't available any other way in libraries here. It wouldn't surprise me if Amazon donated or heavily discounted the devices and the books to promote them.