[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by DNSB

So you are showing the ebook is even more overpriced than the original comparison ($12.78 compared to $87.00 makes the price gouging look even worse).

This of course is not my point. The library here would no more buy the paper book from a vendor that caters to the general public than the county would try to lease the eBook directly from Amazon.

The paper book cost, for a library, mostly consists of the real estate to house it and the staff to handle the physical object. The eBook cost is mostly what is paid to Overdrive/Freading/Hoopla/Axis 360/Cloud Library.

Originally Posted by DNSB

And since the library pays the same for salaries, etc., those costs are pretty much a non-player in discussing post-purchase costs.

I am missing something here. Are you saying that it takes library staff salary whenever I borrow an eBook? Or are you assuming that the number of library staff is chiseled in stone and has nothing to do with how much work they have to do? If the latter, maybe that explains our disconnect. Overdrive and competitors offer a form of automation for library staff jobs. It takes away some of the lower level tasks associated with running what amounts to a warehouse for books, giving more time for librarians to do higher level tasks such as selecting books for acquisition and helping patrons.

Originally Posted by meeera

Given that a fair few of the local community are print-disabled and/or housebound, suggesting that local libraries abandon accessible formats seems a rather terrible suggestion to me.

I agree. While we have fairly strong separate provision for a lot of these readers in the U.S., these are oriented towards audio books and braille, and so may leave out a lot of the population with needs.

This brings up another saving when the library leases an eBook. Where I live, and in much of the rest of the U.S., the housebound can get free delivery and return of paper books. This isn't paid for by my local library, but it does come out of my taxes. Some places, like my county, use the mails for this, while other places have a specialized delivery service. Having a good eBook collection must reduce housebound delivery costs.

If DNSB is right about the gouging, then it is irresponsible for American public libraries -- or other countries with comparable infrastructure -- to patronize Overdrive. They should instead refer patrons, with serious needs, to either the borrowing system for the housebound, or the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. But if I'm right that the Overdrive total cost of ownership is competitive, then the libraries should offer a mix of pbooks and eBooks so that readers with differing preferences can be accommodated.