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I think the problem is an accounting and budget problem. Kobo sends some amount of money for each of those (unlimited number of) copies it sells. North American libraries are built on a buy once, lend many times at no additional cost. Overdrive built its service on that model, so we see these wait times. The booksellers might have agreed to a different model that allowed multiple simultaneous loans, but they probably would have demanded a fee per loan. But libraries would have had a variable budget, depending on the popularity of their books, and most municipal councils are squeezing every department, so that can't work.
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