Few getting e books from library / new agreement with penguin

[patgolfneb]

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-06-22/ebook-library-study/55758366/1 USA TODAY article about library e book lending and possible new agreement with Penguin. Of course it doesn't address the issue of not being able to download library e books directly to many or even most devices.

[ProfReader]

That's a start. Now they need to get Macmillan and Simon and Shuster to see the light.

[eaglewomanEP]

Most of the time our library only has 1 e-book available for each boook. In our book club we have 5 people with e-books, but sine the libary on has one that leaves the rest hanging. So I don't even try anymore.

[KingAl]

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eaglewomanEP wrote:

Most of the time our library only has 1 e-book available for each boook. In our book club we have 5 people with e-books, but sine the libary on has one that leaves the rest hanging. So I don't even try anymore.

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Do you seriously expect the library to have enough copies for everyone in your book club? What if they have 5 copies, but 4 of them are checked out by other people?

[bklvr896]

I use the library as much as I can.  I find it very useful for getting the first couple of books in series that I think I might like to ready.  If I like the series, I'll tend to buy the others, so the library can help them make money off me.  My mom uses it a lot for her bookclub.  They don't have enough HC books for all the members and she's generally able to get the eBook, since she's the only one in the group right now with an eReader.

[eaglewomanEP]

No I don't expect the library to have one for each member of the book club, our library district is quite large and I thin it seems unreasonable to only have 1 e-book available to use.

[keriflur]

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eaglewomanEP wrote:

No I don't expect the library to have one for each member of the book club, our library district is quite large and I thin it seems unreasonable to only have 1 e-book available to use.

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This is usually a funding issue.  You can't really blame the library for not spending money they don't have.

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

We don't like dem socialized libraries givin' away stuff fer free. No taxes! This is AMERICA!

[KingAl]

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eaglewomanEP wrote:

No I don't expect the library to have one for each member of the book club, our library district is quite large and I thin it seems unreasonable to only have 1 e-book available to use.

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Actually, it is not as unreasonable as you think. Libraries already pay more for ebooks than you do (this is what enables them to loan them.) Random House now charges libraries  6 times as much as it charges you for some of their ebooks (they were charging double until a few months ago, then RH tripled their library prices.)

Unless the book is popular, libraries are better off only ordering 1 or 2 licenses. They can always order more later if demand increases.

Edit: Fixed wording error.

[TnTexas]

Especially since those licenses are only good for a certain number of checkouts, then they have to be replaced. Ebooks really aren't good deals for most libraries.