[Web4lib] Kindle Lending

[Wilfred Drew]

I disagree with the premise that eBooks are a problem for public libraries. They have been lending eBooks longer and in many cases much more actively than what I have seen in academic libraries.  I am not talking about success, I am talking about adoption.  Frankly, the rate of introduction in either one is moot. It will happen when it happens.  We just need to be prepared for it and also be willing to adapt to it.

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Wilfred (Bill) Drew, M.S., B.S., A.S.
Assistant Professor
Librarian, Systems and Tech Services
Strengths: Ideation, Input, Learner, Command, Analytical 
E-mail: dreww at tc3.edu 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Spalding [mailto:tim at librarything.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 4:12 PM
To: Wilfred Drew
Cc: Robert Balliot; web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Kindle Lending

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.