Quote:
Originally Posted by John F
Although that $100 and $409 numbers look like a lot, aren't you missing a variable? Time? Those renovations will hopefully last for many years, let's say 20 years? Let's say the pbook needs to be replaced three times, so $409/20 + 3*$30/20= $24.95 a year, vs an ebook at $60 a year?
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I was missing a lot of variables.
There are building maintenance and repair costs. Utility bills. Fire insurance. And forgone property taxes, since our town's library is at a prime location. All these would be much higher if the library was expanded to house paper replacements for eBooks.
While both eBooks and paper books require an acquisitions librarian, staff salary and pension costs associated with physical books are much higher.
Then there are legal costs such as if a patron slipped and fell on a loose carpet in the stacks. In Connecticut, this might be balanced against the legal costs of suing publishers to try to get your eBooks for less. No such balancing needed in Pennsylvania.