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All of which raises another intriguing question . . about 'OpenLibrary'.
You can borrow any of the books in their catalogue, some only to read online, others to download as pdfs or epubs. However the latter two are DRM protected so you can't keep them after the loan period of two weeks . . . .
. . . so WHY do they only allow one copy to be 'out' at a time? If IT is out, you have to join the queue and wait for the current borrower to return it before being allowed to access it.
And that too can be bizarre. A couple of months ago a friend borrowed a copy of something and soon found they didn't like it, and emailed me to see if I wanted a look. SO - they returned it and I immediately went to borrow it. "This book is on loan and you will be the first to join the waiting list". That was two HOURS after their initial withdrawal, and I tried for it within a minute of their returning it . . . .
. . . Two WEEKS later (after the full theoretical loan to my friend) it finally became available to me!! Could have been a computer glitch, so after a few days (as an experiment) I contacted my friend since allegedly they still had it and they found the the book was currently on loan and they would be SECOND on the waiting list!!
Work that one out, but my main point is why, if Amazon issue multiple copies why don't OpenLibrary do the same??
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