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Originally Posted by Chaos
BobR, I can think of two issues with e-libraries off the bat...
1) Conventional libraries only have one copy at a time, meaning that it is only one person with access to it at a time (or as many people as there are copies of one book). E-libraries would be hard pressed to do that.
2) How can they ensure someone would delete the e-book when their borrowing time was over? They probably couldn't, at least not to the degree that a conventional library can...
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Yup, I view the whole e-book lending issue as an issue with the number of copies being shared at any one time, rather than one of whether lending should be allowed or not.
With regards to point 2, Fictionwise is already experimenting with an ebook library. It works like this: say they have 5 copies of a novel, and each time a member checks out 1 copy, the counter decrements. Similarly for the member's borrowing quota: suppose she starts with 3, now it drops to 2.
These ebooks are set to expire in 2 weeks; so whether she read it in 1 day or 2 weeks, her borrowing quota remains at 2. Only when the 2 weeks is up will her quota be reset to 3. And obviously, when the novel counter reaches zero, no one will be able to borrow that novel.
Personally, I think it's kind of neat!
