[Web4lib] Kindle Lending

Tim Spalding tim at librarything.com
Mon Nov 1 16:12:02 EDT 2010


That's interesting, since I'd say the opposite about success in
academic vs. public.

What's your reasoning on that? I'm intrigued!

Mine would be that academic libraries are already used to a lending
model, and their patrons are hardly technophobic. Academic publishers
will be more eager to deal with academic libraries because they're
selling books that--on average--are going to get few reads anyway, and
don't have the same concern about them "lasting forever"—basically,
the economics don't change much from print monograph to ebook
monograph. Meanwhile, public libraries have dire publisher/supplier
problems when it comes to ebooks, more technophobic customers and
circulate a lot of children's books that can't be moved over easily to
print.

Tim

On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 3:58 PM, Wilfred Drew <DrewW at tc3.edu> wrote:
> I agree with the thinking that eBooks will be the dominant format for books within and outside of libraries. I tend to think it will be longer than most forecasts before that happens, especially in academic libraries. It is likely tohapeen much faster in public libraries.




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