Amazon Consdering a Book Rental Library Service

[manny_bones]

[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]my library has late fees, somewhere along the lines of 10 cents a day, after 2 weeks. and as for university libraries... that's only for people who go to collage. no it doesn't. its a helpful way to sort books in the real world, ill give it that, but no one really is able to think "i want an art book that is XXX.XX" off the top of their head, they go over to the computer and search for art book, and find the numbers, and than go from there. google makes about 3$ per 1000 people on average. the number is more or less depending on who is paying for the advertising and where they want the advertising. and as an author, you get very little right to complain as it stands. be happy that you get to write for a living and people actually want to read what you write. parents plow through books in 2-3 days. but average person, yea, 1 a month at best. now, at 1 a month, its cheaper to buy the books outright than to rent them like that.[/citation]

Most libraries are going more like 25 cents a day. And if you happen to live in a city with severely depressed revenues (like a lot of cities), you'll find public libraries also eliminating things like grace periods and finding ways to charge for various other services, like paying to get a popular book without waiting on a hold list or being charged for failing to pick up said hold.

That said, public libraries offer many, many more actual services than amazon ever could, like computer classes (and free computer use), children's storytimes, public seminars and community programming. Amazon isn't going to eliminate them just by offering a subscription e-book service.

 

[aevm]

[citation][nom]tical2399[/nom]Dumbest comment of the week so far. The main point here is they are trying to charge for things that have always been more or less free. Library card costs you a buck and you can check out as many books as you want, (i've only tried 8 at a time) and the late fees are like 5-10 cents a day. But I'm supposed to embrace paying a monthly fee just so I can "move into the 21st century"? GTFOH with that mess.[/citation]

It depends a lot on the details. For example my local public library lets me download epub or pdf files for free. OK, it's not really free, about $60 of my property taxes go to the library every year, but that's fine with me. You'd think why the heck would I pay Amazon for the same thing. Well, here are some reasons:

- waiting lists. Let's say I want the latest Dresden Files book, just released. The previous one ended on a cliffhanger a year and a half ago and I really want to know what happened next. 17 other people have placed holds before me, the library bought one license, and now I have to wait another 17*3 weeks.

- the epub/pdf files from the library have DRM which makes them stop working after 21 days. Normally not a problem, I guess, but what if you are busy at the time and/or the book is very thick (e.g. Dresden Files collection volumes 1 to 6, total 2000+ pages in one pdf) and you have to wait another year to get it again so you can finish it...

- the library content may be selected by criteria that don't match yours. What if you really like President Obama's policies and the library employee who picks the books is a fan of Glenn Beck? Or the other way around? What if you need a Java book quickly and the library only knows about Microsoft.Net? And so on...

 

[aevm]

[citation][nom]pawessum16[/nom]Umm the library is free, has real books you can hold in your hands...[/citation]

Of course, somebody else may have held those real books in their hands first, while sitting on the toilet. Or, in the case of Laurell K. Hamilton's books, who knows what else they were doing with their hands while reading.

 

[gm0n3y]

I would pay a reasonable monthly fee for access to free books. I read about 3 books a month which would normally cost about $20 per book (mostly longer, non-fiction books). When I can find them in ebook format (about 2/3 of the time) they are probably about $15 each. So I'm currently spending $50/month on books (20+15+15). If I could replace the 2 ebooks with a $10 monthly fee then I'd be saving $20 / month.

My main issue is that there are still so many books that I'm unable to buy as ebooks. I guess its getting better all the time, but my physical library keeps on growing in the mean time. I keep having to go through my books and donate bunches of them due to lack of shelf space.

 

[wild9]

I do not feel as engrossed by electronic books as print. I like the idea of reading 'some' books in electronic format.. I just don't like the idea of spending all day looking at screen. Further, for some books like modern technical documents and training manuals, I prefer actual print.

One final thought: what kind of books are Amazon offering - is it free choice or more a choice of 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other? Amazon is after all, a private interest and one that is there to make money, even though it purports to serve the interests of the public. I don't want a library of corporate-sponsored propaganda influencing people's minds, do you? Hope I am wrong on that, and the material on offer is unbiased and as open as it can be. There are huge corporate interests behind these ventures - and no doubt political one's, too..

 

[Guest]

No way on earth!!!!!
Is is REALLY that hard to go to the library?????
PG 307