Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster "throttle" access to e-books by selling them to libraries for either a limited time or a limited number of circulations — sometimes both.
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I used to read a lot of e-books through Overdrive/Libby but I increasingly find it difficult to access books I want to read. I’m sure this is a large part of the reason, and part of why I am moving back toward physical media.
This. Half the time I have to request my library to order the book in the first place, because they just don't have it. Apparently they aren't that big on fantasy, but I already new that...the fantasy section for physical books has always been abysmal.
same access issues here. i'm back to requesting physical bestsellers from the library and getting those in a small fraction of the time i wait for a libby hold. i miss access to audiobooks though. use libby mainly for those.
Which is why there are so many self published authors. I pay for KU so I can read as many ebooks as I want. A lot of them you can buy their ebooks directly from the author. For less than an ebook from a trad ebook.
is ottawa public library underfunded?
not that we don’t have a wait in my county in the US but my library has like 7x the number of copies of these books the article mentions
Canada is generally broke, unfortunately. Science, health care, public services are underfunded and we have to be modest about our expectations relative to the US.
And the cost to a library is astronomical compared to what consumers pay for the same e-book. I was astounded when I learned how much a single circulation costs the library. It's criminal (or should be)
Sadly, both use and funding for brick and mortar libraries (in the US anyway) are rapidly eroding. We thought ebooks might stem the tide, but apparently it wasn't so.
It's so short- sighted. Library ebooks drive sales. I personally bought 10 books this holiday season as gifts. All of these were library ebooks I checked out and then bought as gifts for other people. Publishers should be giving ebooks to libraries as promotions.
Do you believe that once an item is paid for, the person/organization that paid for it should own it or do you believe that digital items should only be leased for a number of loans and then repurchased?
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not that we don’t have a wait in my county in the US but my library has like 7x the number of copies of these books the article mentions
Publishers can charge whatever they want. This is not a sin. Typically, a savvy competitor is on their heels, charging less or giving more value.
But demonizing publishers for trying to make a living provides little value to this issue IMHO.
Why is this ethical? Because the buyer—in this case, the library—can say screw you and choose not to buy.
Nobody is forcing the customer (library) to buy from the publisher.