Comments on: eBooks.com-related unit to get 40K+ books distributed by Baker & Taylor branch http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/ebookscom-related-unit-to-get-40k-books-distributed-by-baker-taylor-branch/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:02:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ed http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/ebookscom-related-unit-to-get-40k-books-distributed-by-baker-taylor-branch/comment-page-1/#comment-130547 Ed Thu, 30 Nov 2006 13:35:31 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=5869#comment-130547 EBL's e-lending model is something public libraries should be looking at too. With only two major vendors selling e-books to public libraries it would be nice to have another vendor to provide some competition. With print books libraries are always struggling to have enough copies of the latest bestseller available so customers don’t have to wait six months for their book. The one e-book one user model counteracts one the major benefits of e-books to libraries. That is that an e-book file can be used by many users at the same time. Its use is limited only by licensing/DRM. NetLibrary e-audiobooks can be checked out by more than one person but not their e-books. OverDrive has only a small collection of e-audiobooks that are always available. Everything else is one book one user and requires the customer to place a hold if it is not available. Neither has the EBL feature that allows enables "a library to 'rent' an e-book to satisfy a unique patron request, without having to pay full price or to wait for an inter-library loan." That is good service to libraries’ customers. EBL’s e-lending model is something public libraries should be looking at too.

With only two major vendors selling e-books to public libraries it would be nice to have another vendor to provide some competition.

With print books libraries are always struggling to have enough copies of the latest bestseller available so customers don’t have to wait six months for their book. The one e-book one user model counteracts one the major benefits of e-books to libraries. That is that an e-book file can be used by many users at the same time. Its use is limited only by licensing/DRM.

NetLibrary e-audiobooks can be checked out by more than one person but not their e-books. OverDrive has only a small collection of e-audiobooks that are always available. Everything else is one book one user and requires the customer to place a hold if it is not available.

Neither has the EBL feature that allows enables “a library to ‘rent’ an e-book to satisfy a unique patron request, without having to pay full price or to wait for an inter-library loan.” That is good service to libraries’ customers.

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