01-22-2014, 11:18 AM | #1 |
Wizard
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Public Libraries
I have been looking for books to read in my local library and so far I have been convinced that the library has nothing. I tried a list of fifty books that I might read this year and looked to see if they had any of them and the answer was no they did not have any of them. So I looked again for fifty other books that I have not considered reading but might in 2015 and they did not have any of those either. That makes 100 books that they did not have, I am thoughly convinced that my local library does not have anything wether I want to read them or not. Anone having luck finding ebooks at their local library?
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01-22-2014, 11:26 AM | #2 | |
monkey on the fringe
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01-22-2014, 01:58 PM | #3 |
Wizard
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My local library has too many books I want to read. And adding more all the time it seems. When I am looking for a specific book I have about 50%+ success, but generally those books show up eventually if not the first time I look.
Mostly I read mystery/thriller/urban fantasy books with a smattering of other things. Maybe you have a really small library (mine is not humongous but certainly good enough) or your tastes are more exotic/specific than mine. I can't imagine looking for 100 books and not finding one of them unless none of them were available as ebooks. perhaps you have show only available checked and the are all checked out? I would suggest that you try browsing by category and see what is there just in case they actually do have something you would like. Helen |
01-22-2014, 02:11 PM | #4 |
Grand Sorcerer
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No luck with ebooks at my library, but I have a Kindle in Canada which is useless unless I'm circumventing DRM and stuff. My library has been very good with paper and the books I am reading...they had 61 of the 70 books I put on the list originally. A good batting average, better than ebook availability through Amazon and other sources which scored 48 out of 70. Sometimes it depends on the specific book whether you will have luck or not.
Do you have the list of titles handy, I'd like to search my library for them in electronic and paper formats. |
01-22-2014, 02:33 PM | #5 |
Wizard
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About half the books I read are ebooks from the library, and I have 196 titles on my wishlist right now. So the library is doing pretty well by me! Are you in the US? Does your library use Overdrive? Did you know that you can search the Overdrive catalog, to find out if the books you want are available for your local library to purchase or not? Then if they are available, you can request them. But it's up to your librarian if they purchase it or not!
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01-22-2014, 02:53 PM | #6 | |
Nameless Being
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My local library system still has a fairly limited selection of ebooks that interest me, but I generally follow the addition of new books (about once every month) and there are generally from zero to six I make note of. The good news is that if I want one of the ebooks from my local system I can usually obtain it immediately, or with a fairly short wait. The selection at the FLP is much more extensive, but usually requires a lengthy process of putting a hold on titles I am interested in. |
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01-22-2014, 02:55 PM | #7 |
Bookaholic
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My library has one of the larger collections in the US AFAIK and fairly often have luck finding stuff I'm looking for. The problem I run into is that often books I want are checked out with a decent length wait/hold list so I can't check them out any time soon. This can be especially problematic with series.
I probably need to utilize it a little differently than I do now as I don't usually go looking for anything at the library until/unless I'm looking to check it out now. I probably need to spend some time browsing around and looking for titles that interest me instead of only looking for specific things as the urge to read them hits. Since I was just told I'll be layed off as of Monday I expect to be making much more use of what my library has to offer. |
01-22-2014, 03:14 PM | #8 | |
Wizard
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As far as I can see, all you have proved is that you can draw up a list of 100 books that are not in the library. That's no surprise. I'm sure I could do the same. The obvious solution would be to look for books to read that are in the library. That's what everyone else does - and always have. Or, look elsewhere for the books that you want to read. By the way, most libraries will happily obtain any book for you if you put in request for it. Mike |
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01-22-2014, 04:27 PM | #9 | |
Wizard
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Sorry to hear that. I hope you are able to find something again quickly! |
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01-22-2014, 04:32 PM | #10 | |
eBook Enthusiast
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JB, have you ever read any Agatha Christie? Jolly good author, and I'm sure your library has Agatha Christie books. Last edited by HarryT; 01-22-2014 at 05:08 PM. |
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01-22-2014, 09:33 PM | #11 | |
Wizard
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As Helen suggested, make sure you are looking at all books in your library's collection. If you search only the books that are currently available, you probably won't see a lot of the more popular books. You may need to look at the whole library collection and put some books on hold.
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My library has a pretty good selection, but some series have only a few books, or big gaps. Of course this works out well for the publishers - sometimes I just have to know what happens in the next book so I buy it rather than wait and hope the library will acquire it. Maybe the publishers are colluding with my library to make me buy books Last edited by 4691mls; 01-22-2014 at 09:39 PM. |
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01-22-2014, 10:36 PM | #12 |
Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
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I make sure to put all books I am currently interested on my wishlist (till it has 100+ items) then reserve blocks of them when I get interested. It helps that I can reserve from multiple (friends') accounts; I can actually reserve the same book 3 times and keep it out on each account till claiming it on the next account, so I get 9 weeks straight to read it. A workaround for the lack of ability to make an OverDrive hold inactive.
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01-23-2014, 12:27 PM | #13 | |
(he/him/his)
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01-23-2014, 01:42 PM | #14 | |
Wizard
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01-23-2014, 02:51 PM | #15 |
Lector minore
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I am going to put in another vote saying that OP is using the library backwards.
Instead of thinking of what you might want to read and then checking to see if the library has it, it's more fruitful to look through the books which your library carries and then borrow/hold the ones you might be interested in reading. Doing this, I can't keep up with my local library and often have to give up books that become available because there are too many for me to get around to reading within the three week lending period. |
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