Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
You seem to be arguing that hardly anyone is going to check it out. If so, why bother to limit the library to only one copy in that time? The publisher seems to think that the checkouts in the first few months _are_ a problem.
I get the feeling that this policy is driven by the big hits; those books that everyone is talking about and that everyone wants to read together. The embargo is probably meant to cover the period of those books' popularity, thus forcing more sales when the books are a cultural phenomenon. From the libraries viewpoint, it may not make sense to obtain one copy and then see how many people put it on hold during that period. They aren't going to get an adequate number of copies until the hype starts to cool down, so why not just wait until then before offering it up for borrowing? A lot of people who wanted it when everyone was talking about a book won't want it afterwards, because they only read the odd book when it is hot. For them, it will be a wasted loan. Put the book up for borrowing only when you can get the number you need, and decide then what number you should buy based on demand at that time. That seems like a sensible reason to not offer a book for borrowing during the embargo period.
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I'm just saying grabbing big cities like NYC to try and prove a point works only until you start crunching the numbers. 8 million people having to share one book sounds a lot worse than say 200 people, a number I pulled using Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone which with NYPL is sitting at 34 licenses out, and 164 on hold. I think HP is still popular enough to have a comparable draw of a new book, though anyone is free to use something new if they want. So lets pretend this was a brand new book, they'd have 1 copy and 197 on hold, assuming 2 weeks per hold that's quite a wait time at 394 weeks. But once the 8 weeks pass the library is free to adjust per demand, they can see the holds on it. So they buy more licenses, how many will depend on the number of holds, and the book of course it's not like these decisions are entirely automated so there's still someone there saying "yes it makes sense to buy this many for this book that's being compared to Harry Potter and is already being optioned as a movie" or "no, it doesn't make sense to get 15 more licenses for 'Best Places to Watch the Leaves Change in 2019' right now" because it's a very short lived topic. Yes obviously there's a range between those, the point is only that high demand isn't the only factor, and that a human is there making the decisions.
The embargo the publisher is enforcing is likely driven by getting sales yes.
I'd say not buying a license within the embargo period would be better than not buying at all. But it'd be better for both the publisher and the library. The library because they can then get a better feel for how popular the book still is after the initial hype. And the publisher because this would be like a second release day, it could stir up new hype from those library patrons who will never buy a book and those willing to wait.