Quote:
Originally Posted by nabsltd
For many ebooks, this makes no difference, since libraries pay the publisher each time they loan out the ebook.
Basically, libraries buy multipacks of loans on each ebook, and then loan them out. Each loan decreases the number available, regardless of how long the loan lasts. Renewals of the loan length don't decrease the counter.
So, when you return an ebook loan, you aren't really doing anything to give anybody else a better chance to check it out. If your library has more loans left, then other users can check it out. If you used up the last loan, then it doesn't matter when you return it. All that matters is when you library pays for more loans.
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This is a bit confusing to me; I get that every book has a certain number of loans "tied" to it, and that every loan, regardless of the duration, decreases this number by one. However, if I am, say, on the waiting list for a book, of which (to keep things simple) the library only "owns" one copy; then surely if everyone returns the book within a week instead of within three weeks, I will get to read the book earlier? I think it might be what Renate meant by "keeping books in circulation".
On my side I always try to return the book ASAP as a kindness to the people below me in the list (or, should I say, as the "normal" thing to do), and I hope other people do the same for me
