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Originally Posted by starrigger
A useful data point would be: How often do libraries buy replacement hardcovers or paperbacks for books that have been worn out? I honestly have no idea.
While I'm definitely a library supporter and generally a supporter of free exchange and DRM-free ebooks, I have some sympathy for the publishers on this one. Should ebooks in libraries really be infinitely lendable, especially if they're purchased at regular retail price? I'm not so sure they should be. I try to make my own ebooks DRM-free, but that's with an implied social contract that the purchasers will not share them with an unlimited number of their closest personal friends (or all of their Facebook pals).
I do think 26 is way too low a number--maybe 100 would be better, if this model goes forward. But maybe a preferable model would be, charge a "library binding" price and say it's a forever-license.
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I agree. I was trying to get at this information earlier and not succeeding very well. Seems there's not a lot of data publicly available about the lifespan of a library book. I did find these two little articles that may shed a bit of light (I posted them earlier, so you might have seen them):
http://homepage.univie.ac.at/horst.p...e-library.html and
http://nyunews.com/news/2009/11/17/books/. They're both for academic libraries, though. ATDrake looked up the Da Vinci Code on his home library's site that gave the number of loans of each book and some were up in the 70s I think.
Then there's this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
The squeeze on libraries is more than just the time issue. Publishers and Overdrive are charging libraries more for ebooks than for hardcover versions. For example, John Grisham's The Confession costs libraries $28.95 for a single ebook license; the hardcover can be bought for a 40% discount, or approximately $17.37. The ebook is an expiring license whereas the hardcover is an outright purchase. Economically, it makes little sense for libraries to invest in ebooks, regardless of what patrons want.
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