[DNSB]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Unless we take a short-term POV, of course it is. Does your union have a contract that says staffing can ever never decline, even by attrition, when their jobs are automated by Overdrive? Or that branches with reduced numbers of patrons will never consolidate? That seems to me politically impossible.

I can't really speak to that though most of the contracts are available on line. From a quick read through one of the CUPE contracts, attrition is entirely possible as are other means of reducing staff. Of course, the union may take a different view from management as to which staff reductions are allowable. What I was saying that this is not something that is going to happen at a speed described as other than glacial.

As for reduced number of patrons being a cause for consolidation? It's going to be a bit difficult to make the idea fly. Take a look at a map of BC. Notice the number of small towns that are scattered through the province. Most of those towns have their own library which is supported by the municipal and provincial governments plus other local sources. Convincing a town that closing their library and have the patrons drive 100K to the nearest remaining library isn't going to go over well even if the library is part of the same regional library. Of course, the Bowen Island residents are going to appreciate paying for a ferry ride to the mainland to hit the library.

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I see some contradictory ideas in this link.

-- There needs to be a balance between needs of libraries and publishers

-- There's no need for a balance because book publishers are irrationally fearful

-- We realize that if what we want happens non-fiction publishing will be so devestated as to requre direct government suppor.

My bullet item immediately above is the only sense I can make of how this next passage fits the rest of the article:

Stating that there should be a balance and then stating the reason, as she sees it, for the lack of balance is fear on the part of the publisher is hardly close to "irrationally fearful". Perhaps you can point out where in that article the word irrational or any of its variants was used.

Hmmm... Perhaps making discriminating against libraries when purchasing ebooks and eaudiobooks an act of discrimination under the Human Rights Act?

I would love to see how you read non-fiction publishing will be so "devestated as to requre direct goverment suppor."<stet> from anything in the article. Of course, you may have inside information that authors are compensated above the standard royalty for the sale of an ebook to a library but I have seen nothing that suggests that is the case and, as mentioned before, the few authors I've discussed this with do not seem to seeing such a royalty.

Sort of an aside. The city of New York has an area of 789 km², a population of ~20.1 million and 205 public library branches in 3 systems. The province of BC has an area of 944,735 km² with a population of ~5 million (both population figures are 2019 estimates) and 235 public library branches (many of those branches are part of 13 regional library systems). Pretty well all the library branches participate in the BC Libraries Cooperative (Library 2 Go) to get better pricing on ebook and eaudiobook management -- economy of scale strikes again.