Waitlists for Library Books Have TRIPLED Since Xmas!

[ltr]

Originally Posted by KoboNo

I do understand this, yes. However, the advantage of an electronic book versus a physical book is not seen in the example I provided. Clear up one thing for me then, please. Does a company, say Kobo, have an endless 'supply' of electronic books to sell or are they limited as well to sell, let us say 500 copies?

For every book Kobo sells, there is a customer that pays for it. They can sell as many as there are people with money in their hand.

A library is generally funded with taxes, and those funds are limited. The library allocates those limited supplies to as many copies of an ebook as they can afford.

Library e-books precludes the necessity to take a trip to a library and get a book and then take a trip back to return it. This is a huge advantage.

Library e-books don't attract penalties when not returned as is the case with a p-book. This is an advantage for both borrower and the library.

ltr

[pholy]

I think the problem is an accounting and budget problem. Kobo sends some amount of money for each of those (unlimited number of) copies it sells. North American libraries are built on a buy once, lend many times at no additional cost. Overdrive built its service on that model, so we see these wait times. The booksellers might have agreed to a different model that allowed multiple simultaneous loans, but they probably would have demanded a fee per loan. But libraries would have had a variable budget, depending on the popularity of their books, and most municipal councils are squeezing every department, so that can't work.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by KoboNo

I do understand this, yes. However, the advantage of an electronic book versus a physical book is not seen in the example I provided. Clear up one thing for me then, please. Does a company, say Kobo, have an endless 'supply' of electronic books to sell or are they limited as well to sell, let us say 500 copies?

Don't you think the author might be slightly irked if a library bought one copy of his or her book, and then lent it to a million customers simultaneously? (Especially given the US library's system's shameful lack of a PLR.)

[Suzanna]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Don't you think the author might be slightly irked if a library bought one copy of his or her book, and then lent it to a million customers simultaneously? (Especially given the US library's system's shameful lack of a PLR.)

It's not just a question of authors being "irked". Most authors don't make a living from their book sales and have day jobs to pay their bills. If their income went down even further because everyone was getting all their books from the library or pirating them, they probably wouldn't be able to justify spending any more time on a career that wasn't bringing in any money.

Make no mistake, though, I am a firm supporter of libraries and use them often myself. I do buy ebooks, but I can't afford to buy every book I'd like to read.

I just came across an interesting article about Toronto's library system (here) that outlines just how our library system is changing for today's clientele. An important statistic that has bearing on this conversation is the following:

In 2009, the Toronto Public Library circulated 31,271,072 items, of which 151,367 were e-Titles.

When e-Titles were first circulated in 2002, only 2,500 items were downloaded.

The new collection budget for 2010, which is more than $17 million, includes approximately 70 per cent for print materials and 30 per cent towards electronic, video and audio materials.

Given the large difference between paper books circulated and ebooks downloaded, it does make sense that libraries concentrate the majority of their budget on acquiring paper books. Ebooks are starting to really take off, and I'm sure that as their circulation continues to grow we'll see a shift in how much is spent to acquire ebook licenses. We'll have to be patient, though, because libraries will have to wait for circulating/download numbers to come in, then wait again until it's time for the new budgets to be drawn up.

[PeterT]

I do wonder on the stats and would love to see more detailed info; ideally a trending month by month figure.

If you think about it, it's in the last year, maybe even the last 6 months that an explosion of lower cost e-Readers compatible with the TPL have come into existence.

It's also a real chicken and egg issue. Until there are sufficient copies and variety of e-Books available, the number circulated will be held to a lower number.

I know with the TPL I would love to see the O'Reilly material in a form I could download and read off line, as opposed to reading it via a PC.

[KoboNo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Don't you think the author might be slightly irked if a library bought one copy of his or her book, and then lent it to a million customers simultaneously? (Especially given the US library's system's shameful lack of a PLR.)

Yes, it would be a problem and is the reason the current model is broken. One advantage of borrowing an eBook is that you do not have to go get a physical book. However, another advantage that I think people expect when borrowing from a library is that since it is an electronic book and not a physical book it should be available to them any time. Such is the case with buying an electronic book (stock is not limited) and watching movies on demand (stock is not limited). The only limitation is your connection to the Internet and how much information you can download.

Going back to my previous example -- if a teenager takes the time to go to a library and tries to check out an eBook and is unable to do so because the library says they're out of books (sounds silly, no?) then what do you think they'll do next? They'll go to a more reliable source: a file-sharing application. They get the book for free from the library. The library is not there to provide what they should be able to provide. Thus, the solution for them is to download it for free from another source.

Yes, it is wrong, but unfortunatly a solution to a broken library model for eBooks. A solution that may work is that if an eBook is 'out' then a person has the choice of paying a small fee to cover the licence costs in order to 'check out' the book immediately.

Note: I have never borrowed an eBook from the library so some of my points may be wrong. (e.g., does there exist an option to pay a small fee to get the book immediately?)

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by KoboNo

Note: I have never borrowed an eBook from the library so some of my points may be wrong. (e.g., does there exist an option to pay a small fee to get the book immediately?)

No, because the library "purchases" (access to) a limited number of copies; so, if they're all out, where would one come from for that additional fee? You wouldn't expect to plunk down a nominal amount for a hardcover bestseller with a long queue for another copy to magically then appear?

The "solution" would be for the person anxious to read that ebook to buy a copy.

[corona]

Originally Posted by 3d0g

You do realize that most books in the library (well, US libraries at least) are purchased, right? They can no more afford to have 500 paper copies of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo than electronic versions. I'm sure if you were an author, your position would be a bit different.

I think a lot of public library books, particularly popular new editions, are leased, so they can have lots of copies of bestsellers for a few months.

I wonder if this is also true of Overdrive editions.

[zoran]

Originally Posted by KoboNo

One advantage of borrowing an eBook is that you do not have to go get a physical book. However, another advantage that I think people expect when borrowing from a library is that since it is an electronic book and not a physical book it should be available to them any time. Such is the case with buying an electronic book (stock is not limited) and watching movies on demand (stock is not limited). The only limitation is your connection to the Internet and how much information you can download.

It puzzled me too. With the same arguments. I forgot is should be paid
somehow. Yep, the solution looks ugly. But, if there would be better one,
library would not hesitate to implement it.
Another question is: what is more important, to earn money for the author
or spread books to the people? This library solution cannot be different
than the one it uses now.

[taming]

I believe that libraries contract with Overdrive for a certain number of licenses for each book. They may decide to have 10 licensed copies of a popular book and fewer of other titles. Library budgets also come into play with all of this.

[KoboNo]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

No, because the library "purchases" (access to) a limited number of copies; so, if they're all out, where would one come from for that additional fee? You wouldn't expect to plunk down a nominal amount for a hardcover bestseller with a long queue for another copy to magically then appear?

The "solution" would be for the person anxious to read that ebook to buy a copy.

The idea of eAnything is that it is available electronically anytime when one has the ability to download it. The idea that an eBook is out of stock is silly. Authors may say otherwise but it is still silly. Yes, licences exist. Yes, this is the current model. This does not mean that the model is broken and silly.

What would your reaction be if you went to watch a movie on demand and were presented with a message: "Sorry, no copies of this title exist. Wait two days until a customer returns a movie to our on demand library."

Silly, no?

[taming]

Originally Posted by KoboNo

What would your reaction be if you went to watch a movie on demand and were presented with a message: "Sorry, no copies of this title exist. Wait two days until a customer returns a movie to our on demand library."

The difference, from my POV, is that libraries are a community service/resource. The reader/customer is not paying for the privilege of borrowing the ebook whilst the library is paying for the licenses. Library budgets are tight, at least here in Canada.

[Mysterio]

I am on the wait list for 3 (which is the maximum) ebooks in the Halton Hills Library system. 2 have 8 people in front of me and one has nine. Assuming there is a 3 week per person wait I am looking at a 24 week wait for my first book. That is almost half a year! This seems a little ridiculous to me.

A quick perusal of all the ebooks in their system revealed that there is a wait list for "all" their ebooks. That is like walking into a library and it is completely empty. I think they either underestimated the demand for ebooks or they spent all their money on new bricks and mortar expansions and had none left over for electronic file licences.

[PeterT]

I will admit I have intentionally lowered my default check out time from 3 weeks to 1.

[Stuart_L]

I have my check-out time set to 7 days also. But usually I return the book even sooner, returning it in a day or two, after finishing reading it. For anyone removing the digital restrictions, please return them promptly too, maybe wait a day or two, so as not to arouse suspicions. But please, any library users, don't just wait for it to time itself out !