Quote:
Originally Posted by faithbw
Since public libraries are paying 5-6 times more for a single license than an individual customer, I fail to see why they can't loan out a book on a single license an unlimited number of times for a limited time with an offer to renew the license at the end of the time period.
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If I understand correctly, you want to let libraries loan popular new books without a reserve wait.
Going on the assumption I did understand: I like the collection-building mission of the library. This goes against it. If this was adopted, I think sales to individuals would plummet. While libraries have a mission to make books available to the public, they also have a mission to support creation of great books, and I think no-wait library borrowing goes against that.
If any book industry people contemplating new models for library sales are lurking, here's my idea. Charge a low price for a large library system's first eBook copy of any bestseller. Charge double that for the second copy. Triple for the third. Etc. This will cause libraries to buy fewer bestsellers and more from the rest of your list. Sale of bestsellers will be helped because many of us will buy the eBook rather than go on an extremely long wait list. Sales of midlist and below titles, now meagre, will be helped by increased sales to libraries.