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I've started using Derbyshire County Council's ebook loan service recently. Once you get past the initial setup stage (which really is too convoluted for the general user), it works very well.
The only problem is the extremely limited range of books available - particularly non-fiction.
Given that digital services are not dependent on location, I can't understand why each local authority needs to run their own ebook library? Why not have a single, national library, part-funded by the local authorities (based on their size) and part-funded by an annual subscription from the users. I don't know how much libraries pay for their books, so can't put any figures on the subscription, but it needs to be less than you'd pay to rent videos!
What's stopping this happening, apart from the political will?
2 comments
The problem is with the publishers who impose very stringent restrictions on what can be read and sometimes on postcodes only within that authority. In Wales we have set up a national service and currently 14 authorities are members, we do have a lot of non fiction, but are struggling to get permissions to buy the fiction we want. Publishers are still in the dark ages
Thanks Helen,
It’s no wonder Amazon is taking on the publishers… They’re really not going to last if they keep trying to hold on like King Canute!
I do wonder if Amazon are going to use their leverage with Kindles to start up a subscription-based lending service, just like they’ve done with videos. It would make perfect sense, and could explain why they’re keeping Kindle’s out of the public library services.
