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Reminder/news to readers using libraries as the pandemic rages on:
Absolutely positively literally EVERY. SINGLE. THING. you hate about restrictions on ebook checkouts, every shitty interface or search function on Epic or Scribd, is the fault of capitalism. NOT YOUR LIBRARY.
Absolutely positively literally EVERY. SINGLE. THING. you hate about restrictions on ebook checkouts, every shitty interface or search function on Epic or Scribd, is the fault of capitalism. NOT YOUR LIBRARY.
PUBLISHERS decided on one copy, one user for ebooks. Not libraries. Get mad at them.
PUBLISHERS decided that a book that costs $12 in print would cost libraries $62 dollars as an ebook. Not libraries. Get mad at them.
PUBLISHERS decided that a book that costs $12 in print would cost libraries $62 dollars as an ebook. Not libraries. Get mad at them.
A couple decades of tEcH DiSrUpTiOn is why other ebook sites are completely awful at cataloging, tagging, searching, and finding. Not libraries. Those sites do not have librarians working for them, trust me.
They may be tech bros who are more altruistic than the tech bros who dIsRuPtEd labor and stole tips, but they're still tech people, not book people. They don't know what the fuck they're doing with books because they don't care. They don't read books.
Repeat: EVERY SINGLE THING YOU HATE ABOUT EBOOKS AND EBOOK PLATFORMS AND EBOOK AVAILABILITY IS THE FAULT OF CAPITALISTS, NOT LIBRARIES. Your librarians hate this as much as you do. Don't complain to them. Don't even *complain* to capitalists. *Shame* them. Make them feel awful.
Just don't hate your library or your librarian, and please just be patient about that 60-person waitlist on the book you want to read. Also, if you are like me and typically check out a million books and read two of them, please do not do that with ebooks, only print.
If you check out an ebook and don't read it, you have, in the case of those publishers who have 26-checkout limits instead of time limits on ebook, essentially stolen cash from the library.
Cause oh yeah--did I not mention that ebooks expire into the ether? A print book in the library lasts years before it falls apart. An ebook from your library, which has no wear and tear, dies, and then your library has to buy it again for a gazillion dollars.
Don't hate libraries. Don't complain to libraries. Shame the publishers and shame the tech companies. Capitalism is the reason you aren't getting to read the books you want to read. Your library has nothing to do with it.
