Your local library and e-books

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It's not just books for most libraries I'm familiar with, but audiobooks, videos and music as well and each counts against your borrowed total. 20 does still seem like a lot, but I suppose the libraries that offer that many know most people won't reach that total and are just covering all their bases.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

15 is enough for me an my mother, but if I had six or eight smallish children, maybe not.

5 is a little tight for many. You can not use them all if you are waiting for a hold to be available. Imagine waiting for a month or two for a hold and all of your slots are full and cannot be returned It's not that many that borrow 20 books a week I am sure, but nice to have a few extra slots.

I know it will cover different formats but still seems an awful lot. I guess its fine if people are considerate enough to make sure they return them early once they've read/listened to them, but people can forget or not bother and so 20 titles at the one time... well it's no wonder there are such long waiting lists in that case!

As for having kids and needing to be able to borrow more, in the UK you would normally have kids with their own library card, because they often have different terms on what they can borrow, longer lending periods and no fees to pay on overdue items. Plus for things like CDs, DVDs & Bluerays, Under-5s can get them for free & kids at a reduced price of the adult cost.

Originally Posted by medard

There are people that like to read the first pages of the book, or that would like to see the book design.

When you like science-fiction literature, you can borrow 20 titles, have a look at all of them, and then you choose one of these. Freedom is getting the most out of freedom of choice and to maximise the possibilities. More choice, more freedom.

As Loosheesh points out, you can view a sample (at least with Overdrive), besides, borrowing 20 books just to open the first few pages to see if you like it is a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut is it not? You can easily borrow a few books and if you don't like it, return it early and borrow another one. So no need to have 20 books borrowed at the one time?

[BearMountainBooks]

I've never needed to ask how many ebooks I can have at one time. The selection at mine is so paltry, I have only found 2 that I wanted and have checked out 3 others hoping they were good (not so much). The selection caters to lit, romance and best sellers.

They are in with two other libraries in the area so the wait time can be long (on the Dresden books for example) when you do find a book you want. It is fast and they do take recommendations, but the books I want to read are often not available for overdrive. I read a lot of mysteries (humor, cozy or general), urban fantasy and some fantasy.

[4691mls]

Have the Overdrive book samples gotten better? When I first got my ereader in early 2012 I downloaded a few samples but they never contained anything except reviews - never had any actual sample chapter, so I quit on them.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Have the Overdrive book samples gotten better? When I first got my ereader in early 2012 I downloaded a few samples but they never contained anything except reviews - never had any actual sample chapter, so I quit on them.

I don't know. I've never sampled. But downloading is very easy so I did download the three "maybes" and sampled them that way.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by l_macd

As for having kids and needing to be able to borrow more, in the UK you would normally have kids with their own library card, because they often have different terms on what they can borrow, longer lending periods and no fees to pay on overdue items. Plus for things like CDs, DVDs & Bluerays, Under-5s can get them for free & kids at a reduced price of the adult cost.

I don't think I have seen young children (under 8) in the library without their parents. I was not able to get my own library card until I was 7 although it might be different now and it was only one book at a time and I could not take out anything without pictures without my parents getting it on their card. I see children today with quite a pile of books, but whether their own or their parents cards are used. I suspect their parents just due to the small disagreements I overhear.

I am sure their are some children in the 2-8 year old range that are capable of signing onto overdrive, finding the books they want, downloading and or placing them on hold, and checking their email to see if the holds are in. But not the majority by any means.

If I had several small children who read a book or two a week, and many can read a reasonable sized book a week by 5 or a children's picture book in an hour or two at most by five, it would certainly be a lot easier to do it on one card.
Each child having their own card probably means they can borrow more in total BTW.

But then again people with large families may not have time to go to the library with their children or borrow ebooks for them. Hopefully the school libraries are adequate

Helen

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by l_macd

Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe View Post

I know it will cover different formats but still seems an awful lot. I guess its fine if people are considerate enough to make sure they return them early once they've read/listened to them, but people can forget or not bother and so 20 titles at the one time... well it's no wonder there are such long waiting lists in that case!

As I said 15 is enough and I never use all 15. 5 each or 10 between us might be tight as we both borrow and read about 4 books each a week. I always chose the 7 day period and return them when they are read if they can be returned. My mother likes audio books when she knits or sews, and they cannot be returned early.

Either of us will often read and return a book the next day. I really don't think we are being at all piggish as you seem to imply. I may borrow a couple of books on Tuesday, return one on Wednesday and borrow another one or two at the same time. We rarely have 10 checked out between us at once and then it is only because the holds come in and you have to take them or lose them.

The 5 extra slots are handy as I keep as many slots open as I have holds so that they aren't sitting in limbo and not available for the three days you have to pick them up. So in reality we have 4 slots each max. Both of us spend part of the year in another province and could easily acquire a few more cards quite legitimately. I chose not to bother as I am fine with what we have now.

Helen

PS we do buy books as well when we can't get what we want from the library.

[soulfuldog]

Helen, please do not get the impression that I was in any way implying you and your mother are being piggish by having 5-10 books out, that's not what I was meaning at all! I just think giving a limit of 15+ titles at the one time is not simply generous, but to some its an open invitation to borrow more than they can read just because they can, which in turn leaves longer waiting lists for everyone else. There are plenty of people who will use that high lending limit within reason, I'm only saying that to me it seems a bit unnecessary.

As for kids, maybe it's different in the US, or maybe its even just local to my area in the UK that its normal for kids to have their own library membership, I don't know? I just remember when I was a kid that even though I was too young to go to the library without my parents, it was a great thing to have your very own library card and get books out in your own name. The simple pleasures of childhood

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by l_macd

Helen, please do not get the impression that I was in any way implying you and your mother are being piggish by having 5-10 books out, that's not what I was meaning at all! I just think giving a limit of 15+ titles at the one time is not simply generous, but to some its an open invitation to borrow more than they can read just because they can, which in turn leaves longer waiting lists for everyone else. There are plenty of people who will use that high lending limit within reason, I'm only saying that to me it seems a bit unnecessary.

As for kids, maybe it's different in the US, or maybe its even just local to my area in the UK that its normal for kids to have their own library membership, I don't know? I just remember when I was a kid that even though I was too young to go to the library without my parents, it was a great thing to have your very own library card and get books out in your own name. The simple pleasures of childhood

I was pretty pleased to until I found out I could not just go to the library and take out books. I was a pretty independent child

Sorry if I misunderstood you but quoting me with 15 slots for two people rather than those with 50 slots gave me that impression. Mea culpa.

And I am not thinking that those with a lot of cards and slots are dtaking out 20 books at a time, just that different libraries have different books and availability they want what they want ASAP.

Both myself and my mother have pretty eclectic tastes so we can always find something to read even at one library. Some are not so lucky and must read that bestseller or next book in a series hot of the press.

I seriously doubt that many go and download 20 books at a time. The majority of people don't have the time or inclination to read 20 books in 21 days.

Sure books are wealth to me in a way. My mother stockpiled books for us when we were young and very poor, bless her heart. But imagine this

I say wow I can get 20 books and proceed to do so. Can't read all these books in less than 21 days so I check them out for 21 days.

Big decision which one first. Easy any one will do.

A week later, only read 2 or 3 books and the clock is ticking. 18 books with only 14 days to read them. The pressure is on. Must read faster.

Week 3 still haven't finished 4th book and flailing around between several haven't even looked at. Gotta pick a book. Aggghhh! Then I look at library website because perhaps I didn't pick the right books. The book I have been dying to read is available now, but all of my slots are filled because I have 20 books checked out. Aha I say! I can return the ones I have read. Alas I say, these books are not returnable early. So on to the process of deciding which book I can and want to return unread. This may seem farfetched but I kind of went through similar with 5 slots

I am sure you are right in that some people have the max checked out at once but I doubt it is that common.

Helen

[idraw22]

Hmmm... my library seems to have a pretty good selection, tho there are some I can't find. 5 checkouts, I dunno how many holds. I've joined two so I have a better chance of finding some good ones. I have used any holds yet. I hate that the time is only two weeks an ebook tho.

[MikeB1972]

My library have just started doing ebooks, on the cheap, very cheap. In fact, as far as I can tell, it just gives you a link to Project Gutenbergs homepage I'll nip in the local library sometime and see if there is any more info there.

The council have just closed 5 libraries, making 7 staff redundant, total savings ~£900,000 per year, looks like libraries are expensive to run. You could certainly make a good case for having 1 online library for the entire UK instead of seperate council run ones.

[drjenkins]

My rural Virginia county library is a member of the Blue Ridge Download Consortium.

I can check out up to 10 Overdrive books at a time for up to 21 days. They also have audio books, music and movies. I just checked the number of available e-book titles: 3567 fiction, 763 non-fiction titles.

[Ripplinger]

I'm also in the Chicago library with the limits of 6 books allowed as checkouts but only 3 on hold. I don't mind the 6 checkouts, but the limit of 3 holds is very unrealistic, especially when you see a book with over 400 on the wait list. Anything popular is going to have a wait list here and considering it will take months to get your turn at the book (especially since I think the majority of people never bother returning a book early when they finish), I just don't understand the 3 book hold limit and what good it does.

I'd actually like it better if they reversed the numbers and allowed 6 for the wait list but only 3 checkouts at a time, but I'd still think the limit of 6 holds would be way too low in our case.

[track]

Our library, in Cambridgeshire, England, allows up to 4 e-books checked out for up to 21 days. Only available in epub, so Kindles are out - unless you can do some hacking. Also have to download using Adobe Digital Editions, which I find a pain to use. The collection of books available is growing, but still a very small percentage of the paper editions available.

[soulfuldog]

The number of holds being increased would definitely be an improvement, though there would then be a problem if you had 10 books on hold and they all became available to borrow within the space of a week!

[tubemonkey]

My libraries have more holds and checkout limits than I'll ever use. I rarely checkout more than one book at a time and have never had more than two books on hold.