Thread: Philadelphia Free Library down
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Old 01-04-2011, 02:30 PM   #38
John F
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
For an eBook that has a maximum of 14-day borrow time, we'll get 26 borrows a year. So if the library has 1 copy and you are #27, you have to wait more then a year to get it. Some libraries allow 2 or 3 days wait time before it goes back into the collection. So given that we can have an extra 2 or 3 days added on, probably more like 25 borrows. And some libraries allow 21 day borrowing for a total of 17 borrows per year.

I think most people stick to the default borrow period and that's whatever the maximum time is. Most do not know that if they borrow ePub or PDF that they can return it once they are done. So it'll just sit there with the unused days being wasted.

However, one thing they also do not realize is that once the eBook is downloaded, it may be on the computer forever. When it's deleted or returned via ADE, it's not actually deleted. All that happens is the expired copy is removed from the list. It's still sitting there in the Digital Editions directory taking up space.
In regards to what I bolded and the Philadelphia library, I think your analysis is a little off. The longest wait time I've had is probably 2 months. If there were 27 people waiting for a book, I think the library would buy more copies. I would say the maximum queue I've seen is around 10, when you take into account number of people waiting and the number of copies available, and the average is around 5 for a "popular" title. Take John Grisham's The Confession as an example, it has 73 people waiting, and 14 copies of the EPub.
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