Libraries Can't Meet eBook Demand

[MickeyC]

Interesting article in the Sunday (15 Jan) Washington Post by Christian Davenport about how libraries are struggling to meet demands for eBooks. And about how publishers are paranoid about eBooks in general and, especially, about libraries lending them out.

Read all about it here (bottom right hand corner of the front page) http://www.washingtonpost.com/todays...1-15&bk=A&pg=1

[kennyc]

Thanks for that. I hope the availability improves!

[Apache]

Most of the top leadership in large corporations can not or do not want to look at long term benefits for their bottom line. They are only concerned with what affects them personally during their tenure at the top.
Apache

[kennyc]

Truth. In additions the only allegiance they have is to the shareholders. And once they have that first personal million in the bank they couldn't care less about that either. It becomes an exercise in power, which corrupts.

[Kali Yuga]

Seems like a pretty balanced article to me.

In particular, we should keep in mind that the libraries are dealing with increased demand and shrinking resources. It also takes less effort and less commitment to get on an ebook waiting list than a paper one, so we shouldn't be too surprised at long waiting lists.

Of course it's a reflex 'round here to play Blame The Publishers. But the article recognizes that it takes more than five minutes to figure out how to best handle a new medium in an old context....

[MickeyC]

One of the things I've learned about borrowing eBooks, is the wait is seldom as long as the library projects it to be. I think this is because a lot of people put their name on lots of waiting lists but don't check out each book when it is available. Also, the wait is calculated by the Overdrive software to be three weeks for each person on the list but people don't always keep the book for the full three weeks.

[elemenoP]

Originally Posted by cassidym

the wait is calculated by the Overdrive software

Oh, my library doesn't show any wait time. I guess that's an Overdrive feature that they chose not to use? Do most people see this on their library's site?

eP

[MickeyC]

Fairfax, VA library tells you how many people are in front of you on the wait list. Alexandria, VA library does not. So, I guess it's an individual library option.

Another reason the wait may not be as long as it appears is that people will get on the wait list for the same book at several libraries.

[bfisher]

For my library, it displays how many people are on the wait list for a book.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by bfisher

For my library, it displays how many people are on the wait list for a book.

My library does the same, but that is it. There is no mention of how many days it will be.

[T.D.02809]

Originally Posted by cassidym

"... how publishers are paranoid about eBooks in general and, especially, about libraries lending them out. "
Read all about it here (bottom right hand corner of the front page) http://www.washingtonpost.com/todays...1-15&bk=A&pg=1

To me it is embarrassing that this paranoia continues. Does anyone know how the other parts of the world are coping with this and related issues?

My library is great with its ebook selections which keeps growing at a fast speed. Yet as others say there a need to "place a hold" and wait for an unknown length of time to be allowed to download the ebook. The rise in e-readers has EXPLODED!

Maybe I am foolish but I keep thinking things will settle and be efficient. I am unsure how many new people reading e-readers will remain in a few months.

[glendalekid]

“Everything you need and want is there,” she said. “There are unlimited books, and if a library doesn’t have a book, they can get it. . .  ."

I wish this described my library -- NOTHING is on the shelves - an unbelievable number of books shown in their catalog have been stolen or otherwise disappeared - their shelves are half empty and the lower 2-3 shelves are completely bare. They also this year eliminated participating in Interlibrary Loan - so no, if they don't have a book, they CAN'T get it for you. This is the primary reason I purchased a used e-reader on eBay.

On my income, unfortunately, I must rely on libraries as I cannot afford to purchase them. Like it or not I must rely on library e-books. Personally, I don't mind waiting for a book I placed on hold. I've waited usually 1-2 weeks. I've had to wait longer when I put a DTB on reserve at the local library.

[Andrew H.]

While the relationship between publishers and libraries is not ideal, the specific problem described in the article is a stocking problem: the library has not bought enough e-books to meet the demand. This goes back to the budget, of course - pretty much all libraries are suffering from budget cuts nowadays. But it may also mean that the library should reconsider how it spends some of the money that it does have - clearly, with the kind of growth shown in the article, adding more e-books needs to be a priority...maybe a bigger priority than they've made it.

A little over a year ago, my library had about 6,000 e-books. Today it has 30,000 e-books, putting it in the top 5 of so libraries by e-book count. (And it has bought far more licenses than 30,000 - it has dozens of licenses for best-selling books, and often 2-4 licenses for books that were best-sellers in the past). However, considering that the library has 2 million titles overall, 30,000 is still a fairly modest number.

However, they have added these e-books in a year in which their budget was reduced by a certain amount, so I'm pretty impressed that they've made this a priority.

[kennyc]

I have no issue with waiting. If I'm really desperate for a book, I'll buy it.

[RainingLemur]

The library here shows how many people are waiting. But...I don't see a wait-time estimate anywhere. If it's something that I absolutely must read, I'll go about buying it instead of checking it out from OD.

It was a good article and didn't point to any one person/entity as the bad guys.