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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  |
Excellent point. I'm sure the library did honestly think hard about their decision. I tried to be constructive and not too mean in my feedback, although I probably could have been more sympathetic.
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Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
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.
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I was able to join one of the other members of my consortium for free so I have access to my old catalog again. My consortium has one of the largest collections in the US so it was quite the shock to lose it suddenly! My biggest concern is that my city on their own with a smaller catalog will focus on popular items and thus not have the eclectic selection that is more to my taste.
Your comments made me research my city's budget, and I found the annual statistics for cardholders, visits, circulations, etc. Fascinating! I also looked at the data for surrounding cities in comparison. My city's numbers are very similar to other suburbs. I noticed another major suburb has also gone out on their own like mine. They went with Overdrive (just not part of the consortium) rather than 3M. I could also join that city's library for free with my county residency.
My city is big enough to have multiple physical branches. I can see how in the future that the number of branches could decrease. I was surprised by how many online visits my library's website gets annually! The annual report commented how fewer reference requests are made since patrons can search independently now. My branches have remodeled to adapt to technology and add more computers as well as coffee and gift shops.
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Originally Posted by Catlady
When my library dropped Overdrive, it neatly cut off digital access for all Kindle users and for anyone who didn't own a tablet or smart phone. Libraries ought to be trying to increase access, not limit it.
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Agree!