[DNSB]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

So publishers are guilty, guilty, guilty until proven otherwise?

I would love to see someone come up with a model that justifies the exorbitant costs for ebooks when sold to libraries without making the publishers the guilty parties. Of course, the publishers could be compensating the authors which, going from a few authors I've met, is not the case since their payments to the authors seem based on sales not loans.

Since you, rather obviously, seem to feel that the publishers are not guilty until proven in a court of law, perhaps you might care to give some reasons for that belief.

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Consider that overdrive isn't all that much like a library, where physical books are loaned, but much more like the various streaming services out there. While I don't really particularly like the overdrive model, I also recognize that a library buying 1 copy and loaning it out is unsustainable also, especially as more libraries open up their collection to a wider audience. With streaming services, one eventually ends up at the point where the artist is compensated base on the number of times a work is downloaded.

Really? At a cost of $156 for 52 loans or 2 years which ever comes first, the publisher is not being compensated for their costs and the library is not buying (pr purchasing a license) for that ebook? And if the publisher does not pass some of that income to the author, how is that the libraries fault?

As for dragging Overdrive into the discussion? Overdrive does have some costs however the costs of using Overdrive is less than the library operating their own Adobe servers with the related overhead, need for backups, disaster recovery and all the other related costs of operating your own data center. You have noticed the move to the cloud justified as being cost effective amongst other reasons?

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Personally, I think a better solution is for libraries to leave ebooks and audiobooks to private companies. I know it's sacrilege to some here, but it's really not a particular good match for a libraries core mission, which is generally tied to the local community.

And the local community is not borrowing those ebooks from the library? From the librarians I know, the only reason for ebooks was a demand from their community. The main issue I've heard complained about is that ebooks are a lot more expensive so the library has to make a choice between say, purchasing 350 pbooks or 100 ebooks. And the 100 ebooks will require repurchasing in 1 or 2 years (or the equivalent in loans) whereas the pbooks will be there until either too damaged to loan or moved to the library for sale bargain books bin.