Amazon to launch Library Lending

[jkeene]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I am amazed at the amount of calculations here based on totally unknowable information.

Does anyone here actually have first hand knowledge of how much Overdrive charges libraries for ebooks?

...
BOb

What I've seen in various places is 13 cents per capita in area served is the first year's fee, then 10 cents per capita in succeeding years. There's a floor of five hundred dollars. Here's one from Nebraska. http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/netserv/p...overdrive.html

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by jkeene

What I've seen in various places is 13 cents per capita in area served is the first year's fee, then 10 cents per capita in succeeding years. There's a floor of five hundred dollars. Here's one from Nebraska. http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/netserv/p...overdrive.html

Somewhat interesting... but not very detailed. What does that fee cover? Is it just for the servicing.... or does it include content? If it includes content, what content?

BOB

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm in favor of being able to accept a library fine to keep a book a bit longer - no one wants to get to the last page of their book only to find that OOPS GONE and you're now #318 on the waiting list.

This is where Amazon offers you to opportunity to buy the book!

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I already give my library money. My idea was to pry some from other people who may not.

I wouldn't think "returning a book" would be overly taxing. It's not like you have to get dressed, put gas in the car and drive to your local branch and put it in the book drop.

No, instead I have to go home, boot up my computer, open ADE, and return the book.

I'm not trying to sound snarky, so I hope I convey a polite tone here, but that is too much darn trouble for me when I already have a million things to do when I get home. I work outside the home and while I *am* am able to browse the internet and goof off online and read books on my ereader while I'm out and about, I am *not* able to return ebooks while out and about, so that would be one more thing on my list of "stuff I must do when I get home" list. And that's a really long list, and a very short time period for me.

Even if you could eventually return items via your phone, what really is the point of this proposal? You say you want to charge fees for letting the book expire with the assumption in place that people who let the book expire didn't need all that extra time and just "forgot" to return it. If I can "prove" that I read the book right up until 11:59 pm, then do I not have to pay the "forgot to return it before midnight" fee?

And for what reason? It wouldn't be an effective way of getting money for the library - people like you would just return the books in advance (as you apparently are already doing) and people like me would stop using the library (and stop donating to it) because it's a stupid artificially-induced hassle. People who don't have or want ADE on their computers would be effectively charged a fee every time they wanted to check out a library book. (And most libraries don't have ADE or support loading on their public machines.) The only thing your plan would get you is smaller wait times, but it would be because fewer people are using the system, which is always great for funding pitches.

There's this strange notion floating around that new formats should inherit the flaws of the old system. HarperCollins wants ebooks to "wear out" so that libraries will have to buy more. You would (jestingly) like ebooks to have to be "returned" in order to reduce hold times and drum up artificial fees. Making the system artificially complex for short term gain will only hurt it in the long run.

You want more money for the libraries? Encourage donations. Extra fees and artificial hoops will just discourage patrons.

[jkeene]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Somewhat interesting... but not very detailed. What does that fee cover? Is it just for the servicing.... or does it include content? If it includes content, what content?

BOB

All very good questions, which I haven't been able to find clear answers for. The per capita fees seem to be mainly for servicing, content is purchased separately. Yet so many of the different Overdrive libraries I've browsed seem to have overlapping content it makes me think they offer at least a few heavily discounted bundles of books.

If someone's seen an actual contract with Overdrive I'm also curious as to what is covered.

[BuddyBoy]

Well, I'm looking forward to the change - although I have used library ebooks for some time, once I moved to the kindle from the PRS-505, it was rarely worth the effort.

I'm certain this will impact wait-times, but it will open library content fairly seamlessly to far more users, and frankly, that's what libraries are for, so I'm unlikely to cry a river.

In a perfect world, this increased utilization of libraries would lead to an increase in funding. I know, hollow laugh, right? But it's just slightly possible that an increase in ebook usage, which, let's be honest, is a bit of a premium product, may in turn raise the library's profile with the folks who are paying the taxes and allocating the budget.

Now I'm not saying that folks with money don't use libraries, or, as the Simpsons put it "Kids, a library is where homeless people go to have BMs," but more widespread usage of library resources by folks with a higher socio-economic status may lead to more funding purely from selfish wants, as opposed the the ever popular but insufficiently funded cry of "think of the children."

Or, it could do nothing at all, and libraries will just have to decide how to allocate funding based on the demand of ebooks vs pbooks. I don't know, maybe their current allocation is ok - after all, folks who can spring for a ebook reader generally (not necessarily individually) have a few shekels of disposable income to buy their own books.

In that vein, I can daydream about a nice ebook donation system, that I'd love to have Overdrive implement. If there's a book you want, but the waiting list is a mile long, buy the library a copy through overdrive and get bumped to the top of the waiting list so you get to read your copy first. At the end of the year, the library runs a report and sends out tax receipts for the total you gifted that year. If they don't have a title, you can put a pending buy, which the library can then review for their collection policies, and if approved, the buy goes through and you have the usual 3-day hold to pick it up first.

I could see this working quite well, depending on the overdrive cost. Even if it's 20-30% more, you get to make a donation, read a book, and get a tax break all at the same time.

What's not to like? Other than 1000s of copies of James Patterson books.

[BuddyBoy]

...oh, and a note about waiting lists.

Something I love to do at the library when I have a few titles on hold but nothing current I'm hot to read, is to search for all the books of my chosen format, in order of date added to the library, and tick the "only show me titles that are available" box.

I dare anyone to go through the first 50-75 books a not find something that piques your interest, but which you wouldn't otherwise think to read. I've discovered some great titles that way.

[Poppa1956]

Originally Posted by abookreader

Holy Smokes!!!!!!

.............runs off to check the thermometer in HELL!!!!!!

-4 and falling.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by BuddyBoy

Now I'm not saying that folks with money don't use libraries, or, as the Simpsons put it "Kids, a library is where homeless people go to have BMs," but more widespread usage of library resources by folks with a higher socio-economic status may lead to more funding purely from selfish wants, as opposed the the ever popular but insufficiently funded cry of "think of the children."

I think you are a bit confused.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...&defid=4014334

[Nathanael]

“We’re doing a little something extra here,” Marine continued. “Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

"Sorry, teacher, sir, I did take notes, but see there's a waitlist now, so I won't be able to see them until March. Couldn't we just postpone the test till then?"

Amazon thinks this is a good idea WHY, exactly? If I want to take notes on a book, I'll do it in a notebook, thank you. Better yet, I'll check out the epub on my iPad and fire up Notes Plus. And the notes are mine to keep forever, no Amazon account required :-)

Sorry if this point has already been made; I didn't have the time to wade through 22 pages of comments.

--Nathanael

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Nathanael

"Sorry, teacher, sir, I did take notes, but see there's a waitlist now, so I won't be able to see them until March. Couldn't we just postpone the test till then?"

Amazon thinks this is a good idea WHY, exactly? If I want to take notes on a book, I'll do it in a notebook, thank you. Better yet, I'll check out the epub on my iPad and fire up Notes Plus. And the notes are mine to keep forever, no Amazon account required :-)

Sorry if this point has already been made; I didn't have the time to wade through 22 pages of comments.

--Nathanael

"Yes teacher, I did read Nineteen Eighty-Four; but Amazon said the ebook I bought for my Kindle was an unauthorized copy. So, without asking me, they deleted my ebook and made my notes useless."

On July 17, 2009, Amazon.com withdrew certain Kindle titles, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, from sale, refunded the cost to those who had purchased them, and remotely deleted these titles from purchasers' devices after discovering that the publisher lacked rights to publish the titles in question. Notes and annotations for the books made by users on their devices were left in a separate file, but "rendered useless" without the content they were directly linked to.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

"Yes teacher, I did read Nineteen Eighty-Four; but Amazon said the ebook I bought for my Kindle was an unauthorized copy. So, without asking me, they deleted my ebook and made my notes useless."

I can't FREAKING believe it

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I can't FREAKING believe it

Fankittehs usually don't

[ApK]

I think she meant this:

"Geesh, tubemonkey for a handle!?! Monkeys spread AIDS in Africa!"

See, while it may be true, it's pointlessly irrelevent, inappropriate, and old news.

Just like your mentioning of the 1984 issue.

And, for that matter, just like Nathanael's post. Seriously, Nate, do you need so badly to find some flaw with every thing Amazon does, you have to contrive a meaningless and inappropriate unintended use of a new feature to mock?
"snortle snortle...this new library note taking feature won't do my homework for me or brush my teeth ...what good is it to anyone!?"
Geesh!

Personally, I can't find any value in ANY of the shared note-taking or social networking features on the Kindle, but it's not exactly a grand stretch of imagination to see how other people might use them.

[Nyssa]

Things to consider:

Amazon has decided to offer the service. Period.

If you do not want or like said service then don't use it. Period.

If you do not like Amazon, or the Kindle, then use something else. Period.

If you do not own a Kindle, then this news really does not affect you, anyway. Period.

My personal take on things:

I would never go into a Sony, Nook or any other non-Kindle e-reader thread and continuously complain about what they do or do not have or offer. In fact, I've gone so far as to "ignore" those areas of the forums so that I can concentrate on what I do want and have. If I cared that much about the other e-readers, however, I'd write a letter to the company explaining to them why they do not have my business.

Everyone who has an e-reader, hopefully took the time to research what was right for them and chose appropriately. I chose the Kindle because of its battery life, the non-glare screen, the price and the convenience.

If you really have to complain about an e-reader, a company, or anything else for that matter, I would suggest starting a thread for that very purpose.