|
Except for point four, the OP's attitude seems remarkably self-centered. Does he/she really rate books as "1" to discourage borrowing? Anyway, leaving those points to one side ...
Overdrive should be commended for building a system which works reasonably seamlessly. At the Toronto Public Library, which uses the system, a current library card and an initial install of Adobe ADE is all that's necessary to get going. TPL doesn't have to invest in building its own custom system -- Overdrive provides a turn-key solution.
As for early returns, I believe only ePubs are capable of that trick; it works with TPL (PDFs and Mobipocket, do not) and I invoke it most of the time. You can also set your default borrowing period to 7, 14 and 21 days but that can also be adjusted at check-out. I set everything for 14 days.
E-books are still books and owners of the content still get paid -- so of course there is a limit on how many simultaneous copies are in circulation. That's exactly the same as physical books and ensures content owners are compensated. If your library isn't buying enough simultaneous licenses, talk to them about it; that's not an Overdrive limitation.
If there is demand for e-books at the local community library, most libraries will respond by expanding services, adjusting their budget priorities to suit. I have noticed this is true at TPL and its quite gratifying. They are adding more books, and multiple copies of books, faster than I can read -- which means going forward there will always be something there for me to read. My Kobo -- which works perfectly well in this environment -- has easily paid for itself with items I read at TPL and didn't have to buy elsewhere.
|