MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Geographic restrictions at the county level?

gracie · 01-12-2012, 06:07 PM

I"ve seen references in here to geographic restrictions on ebooks in the past, but I always thought it was between continents, or at least between countries...

Now, even here in Minnesota, I"m seeing sudden geographic restrictions where Hennepin County library decides only people that LIVE in Hennepin can get ebooks. The 7-county metro residents can still get paper books from the library, but they can't get ebooks. And the St. Paul library has now decided only people in the 7-county metro can get ebooks from them, not other residents of MN that can still get all other materials.

Is this short-sighted, parochial attitude hitting everywhere? So once county A decided only people on THIS side of the street can have one of their extra special ebooks from THEIR library, won't county B decide only THEIR people can have their ebooks, followed by count C, D, E, etc? What's next, the city of East Overshoe decides you have to be within the CITY limits to get a library ebook?

Are city libraries supported exclusively by some form of city tax? Or do they get money from counties and the state and the feds? How about counties? Do their libraries operate EXCLUSIVELY on some form of county property tax or do they get state or federal money? The whole thing seems incredibly stupid to me, but if say, a county library system is SOLELY SUPPORTED by taxes or other funds collected EXCLUSIVELY WITHIN THE COUNTY, I can see where such a provincial attitude would come from... So, does anyone know how the library system here in the US works?

01-12-2012, 06:07 PM	#1
gracie Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 290320 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Nook Color	Geographic restrictions at the county level? I"ve seen references in here to geographic restrictions on ebooks in the past, but I always thought it was between continents, or at least between countries... Now, even here in Minnesota, I"m seeing sudden geographic restrictions where Hennepin County library decides only people that LIVE in Hennepin can get ebooks. The 7-county metro residents can still get paper books from the library, but they can't get ebooks. And the St. Paul library has now decided only people in the 7-county metro can get ebooks from them, not other residents of MN that can still get all other materials. Is this short-sighted, parochial attitude hitting everywhere? So once county A decided only people on THIS side of the street can have one of their extra special ebooks from THEIR library, won't county B decide only THEIR people can have their ebooks, followed by count C, D, E, etc? What's next, the city of East Overshoe decides you have to be within the CITY limits to get a library ebook? Are city libraries supported exclusively by some form of city tax? Or do they get money from counties and the state and the feds? How about counties? Do their libraries operate EXCLUSIVELY on some form of county property tax or do they get state or federal money? The whole thing seems incredibly stupid to me, but if say, a county library system is SOLELY SUPPORTED by taxes or other funds collected EXCLUSIVELY WITHIN THE COUNTY, I can see where such a provincial attitude would come from... So, does anyone know how the library system here in the US works? Last edited by gracie; 01-13-2012 at 08:08 AM.