Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Publishers have no power to stop a public library from buying a physical book.
My source is me. I've never found any.
I just picked, as an exercise, this "#1 Amazon Charts bestseller:"
Sullivan, Beneath a Scarlet Sky
This shows you that libraries are buying it in paper:
http://charlotte.delco.lib.pa.us/sea...ORT=D&2%2C2%2C
As you would have expected, I can't find the eBook on Overdrive. But besides that, using the Calibre lending libraries plug-in to search for library eBooks, I'm not finding it on the Cloud Library (formerly 3M), Axis 360, or RBdigital collections to which I have access.
A few months ago a relwhich generation kindleative recommended another Amazon published title to my wife Barbara, and I could not get it for her as a library eBook despite my slightly crazy, but legitimate, collection of library cards (Brooklyn, many Pennsylvania, one in New Jersey, two military). She did get it as a paper book from one of the libraries in our county. Unfortunately for purposes of providing evidence that Amazon's eBook operation boycotts public libraries, it wasn't memorable enough for either our us to recall the title.
I do have web access to the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post via the Brooklyn library (and probably some of the others). So the problem isn't the man, but rather the Amazon company. |
@Steve (I got it right this time!). So far the evidence such as it is supports the hypothesis that Amazon's ebooks are not available in libraries through overdrive or any of the other players. But the evidence says nothing about why. We can only speculate. You could be correct that Amazon's ebook operation is boycotting public libraries. Then again, perhaps overdrive and others who provide the infrastructure for libraries to lend ebooks are boycotting Amazon. Or perhaps it is simply a case of none of the parties involved have been interested in making an arrangement. I would not bet against you being correct. Amazon could take the view that it has more to lose from making ebooks available in public libraries than it has to gain, though this is not necessarily the case.
Any librarians or others reading this thread who can throw some light on this? As I said, a boycott by Amazon is not impossible, nor am I convinced it is the case.