I wonder how libraries choose Overdrive books

[pendragginp]

Can somebody who uses a Nook for Overdrive tell me if the funny thing that you can't get an Adobe pdf AND an epub at the same time is also true with the Nook?

TIA =)

[frozennorth]

[GraceKrispy]

I don't know who does the buying for our library system, but O M G, drives me nuts! They go overboard buying a ton of "dummies guide" and "how to" books. It might just be me, but those types of books seem to be the kind of books you want to have paper copies of, so you can easily flip to chapters that are pertinent to what you need. Our non-fiction selection having to do with self-help/how-to type literature (and travel guides) is huge, and our fiction selection doesn't seem to grow as much. The audiobook selection is the one that gets all the bestsellers. Frustrating I don't like audiobooks. it warps the book, giving me voices for the characters.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

I don't know who does the buying for our library system, but O M G, drives me nuts! They go overboard buying a ton of "dummies guide" and "how to" books. It might just be me, but those types of books seem to be the kind of books you want to have paper copies of, so you can easily flip to chapters that are pertinent to what you need. Our non-fiction selection having to do with self-help/how-to type literature (and travel guides) is huge, and our fiction selection doesn't seem to grow as much. The audiobook selection is the one that gets all the bestsellers. Frustrating I don't like audiobooks. it warps the book, giving me voices for the characters.

I think those ebooks are either free or extremely cheap to the library. My local library *only* has those type of books available as ebooks. Not a single fiction ebook. They have a good selection of audiobooks, but I have no interest in them.

-Marcy

Sigh, much the same with the Wisconsin library Overdrive collection. The actual e-book selection is predominated by non-fiction ‘How To’ and ‘Self Improvement’ books. The collection as a whole is very weighted towards audio books. Looking at the new additions over the last few months I'd say a rough assessment would be 5 new audio books for every new e-book. Not much use to me! Warning strong personal opinion ahead.

I just do not get audio books. When I read a book I at times read along at regular pace and at other times immediately reread a passage one or more times; either because of its particular significance or just to savor the language. I can’t see duplicating that experience with an audio book without great difficulty.

I can see the use of audio books for those with impaired vision, but realistically a whole lot of people attempt to substitute listening for reading, often so that they can supposedly ‘read’ the book in this fashion while simultaneously doing something else; driving, cleaning the house, … Every study done, primarily directed towards cell phone use while doing other activities requiring any sort of concentration of focus, has shown that people are just not able to multitask in this fashion. I have to wonder if people who chose to ‘read’ a book in this way are not as much interested in putting the notch in their belt as they are in really truly comprehending and appreciating the book—not dissimilar to the Cliff Notes version.

[JSWolf]

Too many frigging romance eBooks are infecting the libraries.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Too many frigging romance eBooks are infecting the libraries.

Try one, you might like it



Romance sells more than any other genre so there's likely a good reason it's so huge at libraries.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Try one, you might like it



Romance sells more than any other genre so there's likely a good reason it's so huge at libraries.

Nope, I won't like them. They are awful. These are the type of ramnce novels that could br written with a computer romance generator program and be no worse.

[wandalynn]

Originally Posted by pendragginp

Can somebody who uses a Nook for Overdrive tell me if the funny thing that you can't get an Adobe pdf AND an epub at the same time is also true with the Nook?

TIA =)

Overdrive PDF and EPUBs coexist peacefully on the nook.

[suecsi]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Too many frigging romance eBooks are infecting the libraries.

and vampires ...... in which I have no interest

Originally Posted by KarenH

The thing I've noticed (and wondered about) at my library is that they seem to have an aversion to carrying all books in a series. Either they'll start with book three or four (when the first one or two are available) or they'll have the first few, skip a couple, then pick it up again. Wouldn't you think that once they start a series, they'd want to complete it?

this is very annoying - I am following both the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly and the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series by Faye Kellerman. I have gaps everywhere where I'll probably have to buy odd books

[Sydney's Mom]

My gripe is the waitlist. You can only put 6 books at a time on hold. Right now, I only have 1 book checked out, because there is nothing else I want to read. I wonder how the waitlist on Overdrive compares with the waitlist for pbooks?

[batgirl]

Gaps in series are not always the library's fault. I asked the Overdrive purchaser at my library to buy Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. They were able to purchase all but books 3,4, and 5. Three missing right in the middle. And they are available to purchase from ebookstores. But my library cannot purchase copies for the library to lend. So we now have a big gaping hole in our ebook series.

These holes are often the fault of publishers.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by batgirl

Gaps in series are not always the library's fault. I asked the Overdrive purchaser at my library to buy Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. They were able to purchase all but books 3,4, and 5. Three missing right in the middle. And they are available to purchase from ebookstores. But my library cannot purchase copies for the library to lend. So we now have a big gaping hole in our ebook series.

These holes are often the fault of publishers.

Yeah, according to Ted Bohaczuk at the Philadelphia Free Library they also can't always get the same formats available at retail either. They try to always get ePub, but even though a book is available that way at retail sometimes the library can only get it in PDF.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Too many frigging romance eBooks are infecting the libraries.

Originally Posted by suecsi

and vampires ...... in which I have no interest

Aren't most of these vampire books romances . . . with vampires!

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

My gripe is the waitlist. You can only put 6 books at a time on hold. Right now, I only have 1 book checked out, because there is nothing else I want to read. I wonder how the waitlist on Overdrive compares with the waitlist for pbooks?

My experience with the Philadelphia Public Library system and with the Wisconsin system is that I generally receive notice of availability anywhere from 1 to 5 days after my request; only rarely longer than that. Of course I have no idea as to how are tastes in books compare.

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

My gripe is the waitlist. You can only put 6 books at a time on hold. Right now, I only have 1 book checked out, because there is nothing else I want to read. I wonder how the waitlist on Overdrive compares with the waitlist for pbooks?

I can put up to 10 on hold at a time on my overdrive system. I still make good use of the pbooks at my library as well, so sometimes I will get on a list for both the ebook and the pbook. Invariably, the pbook comes in first. I have a few ideas on that. 1) Although I might be #265 on the pbook list and #20 on the ebook list (true story!), they have only one ebook copy (per format) and up to 10 or more pbooks at the different libraries. So they are able to go through the pbook list at a faster clip, 2) Unless someone actually wants to turn it in early so he/she can check out a new book, that ebook will be out for 3weeks (at least in our library, unless they changed it to 1 or 2, which I doubt people do frequently- it requires an extra click and you can't renew ebooks anyway). So #20 translates to 60 weeks, whereas 265 on a hot pick (one week max checkout time for popular new releases) with 10 copies translates to 27 weeks.

As a result, I almost always get the pbook faster (actually, can't remember when I got the ebook faster), which is fine, usually. I would say I read more pbooks from the library than ebooks (because of the bigger pbook collection), and I like it either way. The ebooks are more convenient though, especially with the return!