Library YouTube Break #16:
Check it Out! (But only 26 times.)

You gotta love this Library YouTube Break! It’s a video produced by Oklahoma’s Pioneer Library System and it’s sweeping through the global library world. It’s shown up on BoingBoing, and lots of other places. It’s even on the French site iD Boox! (How cool is that?)

Libraries and taxpayers are stewing over publisher HarperCollins plans to limit the check-out of e-books to library customers. After 26 check outs, the library would have to buy a new copy, cause, like, that’s about when the library would have to replace a popular print title.  Considering the traditional two-week check out time at libraries, that’s a year’s worth of circulation.

We talked about this in our earlier post, The E-Book Headache. And now we found out about this great video.

Watch, enjoy, and then continue down for  more comments:

 

 
Can you believe it!? One of those books has been checked out 120 times! And it looks pretty darn good. (Makes me wonder about the copy of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest that I’ve been reading. It looks like it’s traveled through a war zone! Wonder how many times it’s been checked out?)

Look, we get it. The economy’s bad and this new format threatens the bottom line, demanding that book publishers find ways to make a buck and prevent book piracy. The economy’s bad, and in this age of austerity, libraries and taxpayers need to save a buck.

Obviously, what’s called for is a new, fair and reasonable business model for libraries to acquire e-books for their community.

It’s getting pretty nasty out there as the debate continues, and one blogger with The Atlantic is even calling for a HarperCollins boycott.

You can follow the developing story, and all the news and views on this Google news page.

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