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from the today's-borrowers-are-tomorrow's-buyers dept.
In July, Macmillan CEO John Sargent outlined the changes in response to "growing fears that library lending was cannibalizing sales." On September 11, the American Library Association (ALA) started circulating a petition in hopes of pressuring Macmillan to not go through with its plan, which is scheduled to go into effect in November. "To treat libraries as an inferior consumer to the general population, it's the wrong thing to do," said Alan Inouye, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy at the ALA. "Libraries are generally held as amongst the highest esteemed institutions in the community."
"Allowing a library like the Los Angeles Public Library (which serves 18 million people) the same number of initial e-book copies as a rural Vermont library serving 1,200 people smacks of punishment, not support," librarian Jessamyn West wrote on CNN. She also points out that Sargent's claim that apps let people check out books in states and countries where they don't live "betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how public libraries work." There are a few that let you pay for a library card regardless of where you live, but not many. Digital Trends reached out to Macmillan for comment but did not receive a response.
Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/macmillan-e-books-library-waiting-period/
(Score: 2) by hwertz on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:47AM
" She also points out that Sargent's claim that apps let people check out books in states and countries where they don't live "betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how public libraries work." "
Well, the app my mom uses with the local library absolutely does allow her to do exactly this; if the local library doesn't have some e-book, but the one in Madison does, (and nobody there is waiting to use it..) they'll "lend" the book to the local library which checks it out to her.
That said -- I think the concept of having E-Books "wear out" and have to be repurchased is crap; but they are ALREADY doing this (if you RTFA, they are currently having to repurchase the same EBook every 2 years or 52 lends...) Having to wait 8 weeks to get some EBook (more than one copy) is kind of crap, but I think at least being able to have that first copy be a perpetual copy makes up for this. I"ve never felt the need to buy or check out from the library a book the second it comes out.