Quote:
Originally Posted by Barty
Librarians must have mixed feelings about a program that takes so much out of the budget and at the same time is putting them out of business  |
We talked about that some, actually. Someone still has to select the books, rotate the selection, investigate reader requests and very often fill out a catalog profile for books. But I can totally see a small city having an online only library without the building expense and one part-time employee. My library is currently staffed with two children's librarians and about 4 adult librarians with various specialties. The library provides computer services, some printing services and a bunch of other things like children's reading time and book clubs. All of those will probably go away someday and be replaced by online checkouts. It's vastly cheaper. My city already won't hire any additional full-time employees--it's all moving to part-time to keep costs down.
The problem I have with overdrive is that it's so expensive, the selection of books at my library is actually pretty poor. We talk about that all the time too. I don't read best sellers very often and since that is the most sought after, that is what often gets ordered for the catalog.
It's interesting, how times are changing.