Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
Nobody is saying "using the library is wrong". We are saying "the amount you pay in taxes....YOU pay....doesn't cover the cost of the books YOU read". You know...unless perhaps you only check out one or two books a year.
It's not bad. It's not wrong. But in the context of "how much of a hardship is it for the publishers to put a time window on when books are available for libraries"...the answer really is "it's a big nothing burger".
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About 20 years ago, I lived in an unincorporated neighborhood on the edge of town. I went to the library to get a card, and they looked up my address, then informed me I had to pay about $350 for the library card. Since my property was not assessed the library portion of property taxes, I had to pay it myself if I wanted to use the library. I left without a card, because there was no way I could possibly benefit from paying that much for the library, and I didn't ask how many years the fees would cover.
5 years later, I moved to a home that was part of the town and got a library card. In the fifteen years I lived there, I doubt the purchase price of any books I checked out would have totaled $350 for the entire fifteen year period. Only the last few years had digital downloads available.
I think that libraries spend more per capita (the number of residents they serve) on books than the general population does on themselves. Only high use patrons of a library get a value for their tax dollars. Think of the many who are taxed for little return, other than the satisfaction that a library is deemed an important facet of infrastructure. What is the effective use of any particular library branch? One out of ten local residents use it more than once a year? One out of a hundred? I don't know. But my local branch is being converted to a high school library, since so few of the local residents use it (and it is on the High School campus).
edit:
Digital downloads is the only thing that generated increased interest in the library by adults, and I think library managers realize this and want to serve more of their residents to remain useful. But libraries are terribly inneficient uses of "book dollars." 67% of the budget goes to staff, 21% for "other" expenses including providing computers and internet, and the smallest part of the budget is 11% for the collection of materials.
http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactshee...aryfactsheet04
so of the $350 they wanted to charge me less than $39 would have been for buying books. Is eleven percent of your library taxes more than what your local population spends on books themselves? Publishers probably wish they had a bigger portion of the library budget.
And all of what I posted above doesn't change the fact that I agree with you about the blackout period for libraries is not a big deal, except to libraries who are trying to maintain relevance to the community.