http://www.nytimes.com/chrome/#/Technology//www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/business/media/15libraries.html
This article discusses the new restrictions that HarperCollins in enforcing on eBook use in libraries and includes thoughts from ALA president Roberta Stevens. The new change is that everyone's getting upset about is that the maximum number of times a HarperCollins eBook can be checked out of a library is 26. Assuming a 2 week checkout period, this works out to an eBook being valid for about a year, and then the library has to pay more fees.
How do you guys feel about this?
Leslie: Our teacher for LT140 told us about this. She also showed us an article about it, and said that one of the ways people were protesting this move was by simply removing HarperCollins from their ordering lists, thus hitting them in the pocketbook.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't have any feelings about it one way or the other. I'm not sure that eBooks are being checked out of libraries frequently enough (yet) that the "rule of 26" would even make a difference.
26 checkouts doesn't seem like a fair way to purchase the rights to a book. There is no way to know if the people checking out an eBook are even reading them and since they can't wear out like a traditional book why such an arbitrary number? If you are going to subscribe to a book(s) instead of purchasing outright then a time period is a more fair way to do it similar to subscribing to databases.
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