Thread: Libraries: ‘We can’t do this on our own’
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Old 12-14-2023, 04:39 PM   #23
John F
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg View Post
I could be more detailed, but not more accurate.

Regarding your method of looking at the paper book cost apart from overall library budgeting, the processing cost and librarian salary for adding the book, such a barcoding and cataloging, should be included. Depending on how fast that librarian works, this may easily be more than the cost of the book. However, it we look at it from a budget standpoint, all cost are included.

The operating expense budget for my 53,000 volume public library, minus contribution to the county eBook collection ($15,000), and fines ($12,100) -- excluded because there's no fine revenue from eBooks -- was $927,900 for 2022. This does NOT include anything for the building fund or major maintenance or, since we do not do it, suing publishers. This particular library does more in the way of non-lending-related literacy promotion than most, including English language and U.S. citizenship classes, so I do have to hold out a lot of the budget there. My guesstimate is that it costs maybe $11 a book per year just to sit on the shelf. Capital costs -- initially building the library and then having multi-million dollar major maintenance and renovation projects every so many years -- are much bigger than routine operating expenses just mentioned.

Libraries with outdated crowded facilities, deferred major maintenance, and volunteer labor, surely have much lower costs per paper book per year. They might then reasonably decide to spend less on eBooks. And libraries with high real estate and labor costs -- think New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore -- might reasonably see eBooks as a bargain. The cities just mentioned do have excellent eBook collections, so maybe I am not the only one thinking this way.

As a reader, I don't consider pressuring the major publishers to lower their prices to be a freebee. With less revenue, they will publish fewer books, reduce the quality of editing, or lower advances. This means less good reading for me.
So, using your numbers, it looks like pbokks are up to $35 dollars a year, and eBooks are more then $60, assuming some additional costs for eBooks.
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