Quote:
Originally Posted by glindaharrison
The Kindle has been disparaged frequently because it does not allow borrowing from libraries. Some bloggers are noting that if you take borrowing off the table, it is a huge boost for the Kindle.
I just bought a Literati, mainly to try borrowing library books. I have vision problems and find that the backlit screen doesn't work well for me at all. I had been considering a new e-ink reader that would be capable of borrowing, but think that I will wait to see how this shakes out.  |
The success of Kindle in the market proves that for most users, library borrowing is not that important a feature.
In my case, I have been reading library books on my iPod Touch for a few months now. There were a initially few titles of high interest, but now that I've read these, I'm working through titles of more middling interest, and finding that once I get a chance to check them out and read a couple of chapters, that I return about 75% of them without reading further. The selection available at my library is skewed pretty heavily towards popular genres which I am not interested in (e.g. romance novels, self-help books). I have a couple dozen titles on my Wish List, of which only about 5 are available at any given time. And none of these are books that I'd read if I had to pay for them.
So while I'd like to be able to read library books on my Kindle, it is just in the 'nice to have' category. Amazon will not be adding ePub support at any time soon, and adding what would amount to an additional digital format to Overdrive's offerings, and given limited library budgets, would further restrict selection and therefore availability for all patrons. Short of legislation, I don't see much hope that the artificial scarcity enforced jointly by publishers and Overdrive will give way to a new age of digital content abundance.
I think there is an opportunity for Amazon or some other player (Google?) to launch a commercial ebook lending service that is format-neutral and is driven by subscription revenue, 'like Netflix streaming', or one-time, time-limited 'rentals' with prices less than 'purchases'. I think publishers, large and small, would find that less threatening than a model where their content is offered for free, unlimited usage.