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Originally Posted by John F
Staff cost is $3,300,000
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That was for all six locations with a total of, I think, around 170,000 books. So staff costs alone come to maybe $19 per paper book per year.
You could say that some of the staff cost is for eBook acquisition, except in our case that is done at the county level.
You could also say that some of the staff cost is for things like storytime that shouldn't be allocated to paper books support. I'd agree and guess that real staff cost is roughly $10 - $15 per paper book per year. That's just staff -- not utilities, paying off construction bonds, and lots of other costs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
David Baldacci, The Fallen at $22.80 for the pbook, $87.00 for the ebook.
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At bookfinder.com I'm finding this for $9.76 new in hardcover, or $5.74 for a new paperback.
The cost of a physical library pbook is insignificant compared to other costs ranging from rent to cataloging to the time of the acquisitions librarian in figuring out that a title would be a good addition to the collection. That's part of why many libraries decline all book donations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
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.
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That's only true if the person purchasing the 350 pbooks isn't worrying about the cost of housing those books, perhaps because the capital budget is someone else's problem.
Or it could be that they discard one older book for each paper book they buy. As someone who often reads books published 20 - 50 years ago, I don't like that. I think there should be a value given to the loss of the opportunity to read the older book.
One of the many advantages of leasing an eBook is that the library doesn't have to choose between physical expansion and deaccessioning.
I'm not saying that the eBook lease is always a good buy. I am saying that I've never seen a plausible cost comparison.