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Have none of you ever put a hold on a library book? I have. Do you think every book you ever wanted was waiting for you in the brick and mortar library? Of course not. All this complaining that the book you want isn't available or that you have to put a hold on it baffles me. That's how libraries have always worked.
I was curious how "bad" this availability was, so I logged onto my local library today. I signed out 10 books by bestselling authors I like and put another 6 (the maximum) on hold and 30 more in my wish list. That's a lot of availability. Even with libraries lagging the explosion of eReaders, there are books that can be signed out.
I'd say that not always getting instant gratification and using holds seems like a good balance. That system won't cut into the publishers' bottom line much since people who don't want to wait can go buy the book. It's pretty unlikely that people with eReaders have zero inventory of books on their devices, the panic over library books seems exaggerated to me.
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