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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: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday September 16 2019, @09:45PM (2 children)
#1 You can't easily flip through a digital book and find that thing you sort of remember.
#2 The total loss scenario for paper books is much more catastrophic than "sudo rm -r" (Delete All) or just issues with hardware storage media.
#3 I don't need power to access my paper book.
#4 It's really simple to jot down notes in the margin of a book, if that's your thing. Those notes will likely still be there 100 years from now, unless the book gets tossed in the garbage / fire.
#5 https://xkcd.com/2030/ [xkcd.com] Yeah, that essentially applies to everything.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Touché) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 16 2019, @10:55PM (1 child)
#1 If you misremember which book has that thing you sort of remember, the computer can run it down for you a whole lot faster.
#2 True, true.
#3 Yes, yes you do need power. You can't read in the dark; you need light. Might be direct sunlight, but that's definitely power.
#4 Notes can be written down in the margins, you say? Like the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem wasn't, because there wasn't enough room.
#5 How many books has Project Gutenberg lost? None at all?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday September 17 2019, @01:23AM
pedantry++: Reading a paper book doesn't need artificial power during the daytime.
I was under the impression that Project Gutenberg has had to stop digitizing books as more and more English-speaking countries have extended their copyright terms from the end of the 50th calendar year after the death of the last surviving author to the end of the 70th calendar year after the death of the last surviving author.