The cost of distribution is not a fair price for a book.
Let me know when you are willing to work for the price of transpiration alone. I'll swing buy and pick you up, and you can dig me a swimming pool out back for free.
According to the article you linked, Penguin hasn't been working with OverDrive in the first place. Without Penguin and without HC, what does that leave?
Plenty. HC and Penguin do not the book world define.
However, the article I linked to was from March, and Penguin was coming around at that time. They have seen the light, and as of September they are back on Overdrive.
They have further to go. But they've turned their head in the right direction. The loss of sales was becoming painful.
Increased energy use by the library will be far more than compensated by decreased energy use by patrons driving to/from the library
This makes no sense. How in the hell do the people get the e-books (and return them), or use the computers? They have to go to the library, no? If not, then what's the point of building the library at all?
Don't confuse THIS library with a normal e-book lending library. They are lending devices with ebooks already on them. Its meant to serve people too dumb to use the internet or too poor to afford an e-reader of their own.
Most ebook libraries exist in a server room hosted at some big provider somewhere, and people get to it via the web, and the total energy budget for fetching and reading and returning the ebook could be supplied by a couple of double A batteries.
The mere existence of technology does not circumvent or obsolete the agreement the society makes with authors, artists, and inventors. You insist on getting paid for your work, in spite of the fact that there is no scarcity of humans.
I think it is reasonable to assume that letting every library lend an infinite number of copies of every book would put a damper on sales, effectively making the ebook market into a 'donations only' market overnight.
True, throwing every e-book out there with unlimited duplication right would mean there would be no way for an author to make a living by writing.
Some say this would be a blessing, but a brief tour through some of the self published trash available for free should disabuse you of that notion. Publishers and editors server a purpose almost as important as authors.
However, libraries always work off of the same model as physical books, buy three copies to lend and lend only three at any one time. But ebook lending from libraries can make best sellers out books before they actually arrive in print form. (Eat Pray Love was one such book, where the e-book popularity triggered the best seller list status before the paperback hit the streets.)
I'm just old fashion enough that I still think authors deserve and need an income.
I have 60,000 books on a drive. They're assembled as a collection in Calibre, and then indexed in Dropout.
I love Calibre. Its a totally awesome application.
My collection does not include 60k titles, because I collect only what I need, from legal sources. Calibre is running on a computer on my network all the time, and all of my devices can access it via the built in content server. All backed up on dropbox, all of it full text indexed.
Once I buy an e-book, it goes into Calibre. The only thing that doesn't go in there is library books.
care to provide one such link for a site will millions of (free) books available (other than project gutenberg) - preferrably with the possibility to for batch downloading the whole archive ? and no I don't mean a LMGTFY link
There are at least a dozen, (and NO, you don't get to dismiss Gutenberg out of hand). Barnes and Nobel, Amazon, and Google all have scads of free titles. (You just have to know how to search). https://openlibrary.org/ over a million titles. There are several "lending" libraries that pool ebooks so you can borrow through OpenLibrary.org https://openlibrary.org/libraries (scroll down).
You don't have enough time in your remaining life to read the number of freely available ebooks that a simple web search will turn up.
Oh, do fuck off with this luddism meme. It has nothing to do with dislike for progress and everything to do with e-readers only duplicating a subset of the paper reading experience while having their own set of disadvantages.
I'm so over fondling pages of real books. If that's how you get your enjoyment, put your ereader inside of any random outdated encyclopedia so you can play with the pages, smell the moldy paper, end enjoy the paper cuts.
My trip to the library to pick up books takes all of two minutes. Go in, pick up holds, check them out, leave. Facebook dude is there for who knows how long. No comparison.
My trips to the library are non-existent. My library comes to me on any one of my android devices, computers, or e-readers.
Unless I live around the corner from the library, I couldn't justify driving uptown to the library, when I could get most of what I want digitally. I'm so over fondling books.
But I'm amazed that no one is constructively talking about POD in these "future of books" discussions, even at the risk on the store side of the big chains folding. (ProTip - why would I even order from amazon if I could get my copy in my hand at lunch?)
The reason is that most people don't want to OWN dead tree books anymore. Too big. Too heavy. Too much to move. Most people read it once and done. And the publishers aren't going to give POD away for anything less than a paperback price.
POD works for technical books, where you need to access it randomly, and away from a computer.
Other than that, nobody wants it. E-books are easier.
Your link is a dated article. At least two years old. It doesn't even realize that the kindle is supported by Overdrive.
Counties are forming partnerships with adjacent counties to expand their collections. (I can borrow for four different county libraries, and two university libraries, all via my single county library card).
The publishers and Overdrive are coming around, making more and more of their catalog available in ebook form. The bitchslap they got from the DOJ and the slam dunk that Google scored have pretty much broken their will to get into abusive relationships with libraries.
When HarperCollins tried to limit lending to 26 lends, Overdrive dropped the publisher from their general catelog. HC is by far the most restrictive. The problem is that Counties don't have the clout to sue the publishers.
Yes it is. Simply because something takes longer, doesn't mean the change doesn't happen, or is not permanent. The organism is modified. Its genes are altered. The effect is the same.
The other nice thing about this is that the libraries usually work through a company like Overdrive which allows them to get 8 copies of popular books, and then reduce the number of copies as demand slacks off, and move those copies to newer or more popular titles.
That means instead of there being exactly one book in the inventory, there may be 3 or 8.
while paper books actually do have some advantages...most libraries do not carry multiple copies of that book. A major advantage here is that every one of their readers can have the exact same book on it at the exact same time so 12 people in 12 households can all enjoy it at the same time.
Well not necessarily. Libraries still have to buy ebooks. Just like regular books. They can only afford so many, and can't lend out more than that.
Most libraries subscribe to something like Overdrive, and actual house no ebook infrastructure themselves. (Madam librarian does not usually possess the computer skilz to do handle this). Overdrive keeps track of the lending, due dates, copies out, waiting lists, total copies owned, etc).
Really, the internet has reached 89% of US households, either via broadband, dial up, or wireless.
If I wanted to read the Internet, I could stay home. Print on paper is an utterly different experience. You know -- Tactile, spatial (how far into the book you are, what side of the page) -- not to mention, you can slip bookmarks into pages, photocopy them, and pass them around between several people.
When I check half a dozen books out of the library, I read one, I pass it along to Mom while she's reading another, and to Dad, and my brother... How do you propose doing that with a bunch of e-books?
And buggy whips are a whole lot better experience than stepping on the accelerator. (except for the horse)
Come on, waxing eloquent about past has been a tired cliche since the Pleistocene.
Books are heavy, cumbersome to hold, impossible to operate with one hand, subject to wear and tear, and take up a whole bunch of room.
As for the passing along of ebooks, its easy. Since you all read the same books, put all your e-readers on the same account. Done. I seldom take more than one book out of my library at once, because I do it on the e-reader, and can return it and have another in about 26 seconds. But of I'm going on vacation and won't be near wifi, I can download a couple dozen. (I've got three months worth of purchased reading on the ereader at any one time).
Granted, Books are better when there are maps involved, (history books), or extensive cross referencing needed, but for most reading ebooks are just fine, and you can hold the reader in one hand, and fit it in your pocket.
Pick any E-reader and try it out. they are getting dirt cheap. Get one that can borrow from your local library, as well as any library where you can get a library card. And also access all the free ebook sites (there are dozens).
Sometimes it's a matter of transport. Iowa has no shortage of pork at all, but the cost of shipping it to China before it loses its freshness may sometimes be more than the Chinese feel like paying.
Its not like China has any problems raising pork of their own. Half the world's pig population is in China. The problem is their back-yard farming techniques are inefficient. Its often more efficient to import from the US. They are buying US Port producers lock stock and barrel simply to gain efficiency.
Radiation mutation in agriculture is a myth, it was the favorite whipping boy of the same people who cry about current GMO gene splicing technologies.
The actual truth is that the major advances in the Green revolution was by good old fashion selective cross breeding by (mostly american) scientists to increase wheat, rice and corn production, and developed new strains that changed India from the famine capital or the world to a large net food exporter.
True, the so called "Green Revolution" is not principally due to Genetically Modified Organisms, at least not in the sense those words are used today. (The above referenced wiki article on this subject is about as biased as anything I've ever seen on wiki, bordering on the vitriol normally seen regarding political campaign.)
However, there is no doubt that prior methods of gene selection (breeding) resulted in massive increase in grain crop yields, with Rice crops developed in the US saving many different countries in South East Asia from huge famines. Resistance to pests was accomplished by selective breeding long before gene splicing was invented. But there is no doubt that these grains were genetically modified.
So you presume someone from today knows every thing that happened in the past? Nothing went unnoticed? Or everyone meeting a time traveler would rush out and tell someone?
People end up getting the paper currency they want. There are a few trial-balloon types of coin/paper currencies they don't want, and a few novelty paper currencies like $2 bills just because.
But lots of people seek to avoid unpopular denominations in coin or paper simply because the inconvenience factor. We have dollar coins, and $2 bills, but nobody likes them, cashiers in stores give you grief (no slot in the till for them). So they end up as novelties.
Slashdot Mirror
Doh! Transportation.
The cost of distribution is not a fair price for a book.
Let me know when you are willing to work for the price of transpiration alone.
I'll swing buy and pick you up, and you can dig me a swimming pool out back for free.
According to the article you linked, Penguin hasn't been working with OverDrive in the first place. Without Penguin and without HC, what does that leave?
Plenty. HC and Penguin do not the book world define.
However, the article I linked to was from March, and Penguin was coming around at that time.
They have seen the light, and as of September they are back on Overdrive.
They have further to go. But they've turned their head in the right direction. The loss of sales was becoming painful.
Increased energy use by the library will be far more than compensated by decreased energy use by patrons driving to/from the library
This makes no sense. How in the hell do the people get the e-books (and return them), or use the computers? They have to go to the library, no? If not, then what's the point of building the library at all?
Don't confuse THIS library with a normal e-book lending library. They are lending devices with ebooks already on them.
Its meant to serve people too dumb to use the internet or too poor to afford an e-reader of their own.
Most ebook libraries exist in a server room hosted at some big provider somewhere, and people get to it via the web,
and the total energy budget for fetching and reading and returning the ebook could be supplied by a couple of double A batteries.
The mere existence of technology does not circumvent or obsolete the agreement the society makes with authors, artists, and inventors.
You insist on getting paid for your work, in spite of the fact that there is no scarcity of humans.
I think it is reasonable to assume that letting every library lend an infinite number of copies of every book would put a damper on sales, effectively making the ebook market into a 'donations only' market overnight.
True, throwing every e-book out there with unlimited duplication right would mean there would be no way for an author to make a living by writing.
Some say this would be a blessing, but a brief tour through some of the self published trash available for free should disabuse you of that notion.
Publishers and editors server a purpose almost as important as authors.
However, libraries always work off of the same model as physical books, buy three copies to lend and lend only three at any one time.
But ebook lending from libraries can make best sellers out books before they actually arrive in print form. (Eat Pray Love was one such book, where
the e-book popularity triggered the best seller list status before the paperback hit the streets.)
I'm just old fashion enough that I still think authors deserve and need an income.
I have 60,000 books on a drive. They're assembled as a collection in Calibre, and then indexed in Dropout.
I love Calibre. Its a totally awesome application.
My collection does not include 60k titles, because I collect only what I need, from legal sources.
Calibre is running on a computer on my network all the time, and all of my devices can access it via the built in content server.
All backed up on dropbox, all of it full text indexed.
Once I buy an e-book, it goes into Calibre. The only thing that doesn't go in there is library books.
care to provide one such link for a site will millions of (free) books available (other than project gutenberg) - preferrably with the possibility to for batch downloading the whole archive ? and no I don't mean a LMGTFY link
There are at least a dozen, (and NO, you don't get to dismiss Gutenberg out of hand).
Barnes and Nobel, Amazon, and Google all have scads of free titles. (You just have to know how to search).
https://openlibrary.org/ over a million titles.
There are several "lending" libraries that pool ebooks so you can borrow through OpenLibrary.org https://openlibrary.org/libraries (scroll down).
You don't have enough time in your remaining life to read the number of freely available ebooks that a simple web search will turn up.
Oh, do fuck off with this luddism meme. It has nothing to do with dislike for progress and everything to do with e-readers only duplicating a subset of the paper reading experience while having their own set of disadvantages.
I'm so over fondling pages of real books. If that's how you get your enjoyment, put your ereader inside of any random outdated encyclopedia so you can play with the pages, smell the moldy paper, end enjoy the paper cuts.
My trip to the library to pick up books takes all of two minutes. Go in, pick up holds, check them out, leave. Facebook dude is there for who knows how long. No comparison.
My trips to the library are non-existent.
My library comes to me on any one of my android devices, computers, or e-readers.
Unless I live around the corner from the library, I couldn't justify driving uptown to the library, when I could get most of what I want digitally.
I'm so over fondling books.
But I'm amazed that no one is constructively talking about POD in these "future of books" discussions, even at the risk on the store side of the big chains folding. (ProTip - why would I even order from amazon if I could get my copy in my hand at lunch?)
The reason is that most people don't want to OWN dead tree books anymore. Too big. Too heavy. Too much to move. Most people read it once and done.
And the publishers aren't going to give POD away for anything less than a paperback price.
POD works for technical books, where you need to access it randomly, and away from a computer.
Other than that, nobody wants it. E-books are easier.
Your link is a dated article. At least two years old. It doesn't even realize that the kindle is supported by Overdrive.
Counties are forming partnerships with adjacent counties to expand their collections. (I can borrow for four different county libraries, and two university libraries, all via my single county library card).
The publishers and Overdrive are coming around, making more and more of their catalog available in ebook form. The bitchslap they got from the DOJ and the slam dunk that Google scored have pretty much broken their will to get into abusive relationships with libraries.
When HarperCollins tried to limit lending to 26 lends, Overdrive dropped the publisher from their general catelog.
HC is by far the most restrictive.
The problem is that Counties don't have the clout to sue the publishers.
Selecting something is not modifying it.
Yes it is.
Simply because something takes longer, doesn't mean the change doesn't happen, or is not permanent. The organism is modified. Its genes are altered.
The effect is the same.
The other nice thing about this is that the libraries usually work through a company like Overdrive which allows them to get 8 copies of popular books, and then reduce the number of copies as demand slacks off, and move those copies to newer or more popular titles.
That means instead of there being exactly one book in the inventory, there may be 3 or 8.
while paper books actually do have some advantages...most libraries do not carry multiple copies of that book. A major advantage here is that every one of their readers can have the exact same book on it at the exact same time so 12 people in 12 households can all enjoy it at the same time.
Well not necessarily. Libraries still have to buy ebooks. Just like regular books. They can only afford so many, and can't lend out more than that.
Most libraries subscribe to something like Overdrive, and actual house no ebook infrastructure themselves. (Madam librarian does not usually possess the computer skilz to do handle this). Overdrive keeps track of the lending, due dates, copies out, waiting lists, total copies owned, etc).
Really, the internet has reached 89% of US households, either via broadband, dial up, or wireless.
If I wanted to read the Internet, I could stay home. Print on paper is an utterly different experience. You know -- Tactile, spatial (how far into the book you are, what side of the page) -- not to mention, you can slip bookmarks into pages, photocopy them, and pass them around between several people.
When I check half a dozen books out of the library, I read one, I pass it along to Mom while she's reading another, and to Dad, and my brother... How do you propose doing that with a bunch of e-books?
And buggy whips are a whole lot better experience than stepping on the accelerator. (except for the horse)
Come on, waxing eloquent about past has been a tired cliche since the Pleistocene.
Books are heavy, cumbersome to hold, impossible to operate with one hand, subject to wear and tear, and take up a whole bunch of room.
As for the passing along of ebooks, its easy. Since you all read the same books, put all your e-readers on the same account. Done.
I seldom take more than one book out of my library at once, because I do it on the e-reader, and can return it and have another in about 26 seconds. But of I'm going on vacation and won't be near wifi, I can download a couple dozen. (I've got three months worth of purchased reading on the ereader at any one time).
Granted, Books are better when there are maps involved, (history books), or extensive cross referencing needed, but for most reading ebooks are just fine, and you can hold the reader in one hand, and fit it in your pocket.
Pick any E-reader and try it out. they are getting dirt cheap. Get one that can borrow from your local library, as well as any library where you can get a library card. And also access all the free ebook sites (there are dozens).
Ok, I'm getting off your lawn.
Because you can never have too many cores that you aren't using most of the time.
How about more speed? Or is that too hard?
Pretty sure it wasn't meant for you (or me).
Scottish.
Sometimes it's a matter of transport. Iowa has no shortage of pork at all, but the cost of shipping it to China before it loses its freshness may sometimes be more than the Chinese feel like paying.
Its not like China has any problems raising pork of their own. Half the world's pig population is in China.
The problem is their back-yard farming techniques are inefficient. Its often more efficient to import from the US.
They are buying US Port producers lock stock and barrel simply to gain efficiency.
Radiation mutation in agriculture is a myth, it was the favorite whipping boy of the same people who cry about current GMO gene splicing technologies.
The actual truth is that the major advances in the Green revolution was by good old fashion selective cross breeding by (mostly american) scientists to increase wheat, rice and corn production, and developed new strains that changed India from the famine capital or the world to a large net food exporter.
True, the so called "Green Revolution" is not principally due to Genetically Modified Organisms, at least not in the sense those words are used today. (The above referenced wiki article on this subject is about as biased as anything I've ever seen on wiki, bordering on the vitriol normally seen regarding political campaign.)
However, there is no doubt that prior methods of gene selection (breeding) resulted in massive increase in grain crop yields, with Rice crops developed in the US saving many different countries in South East Asia from huge famines. Resistance to pests was accomplished by selective breeding long before gene splicing was invented. But there is no doubt that these grains were genetically modified.
So you presume someone from today knows every thing that happened in the past? Nothing went unnoticed?
Or everyone meeting a time traveler would rush out and tell someone?
You can try, but the response you get back is likely to be: So, what do you think then, Empire or A-Line?
LOL.
Except that nobody wants paper quarters.
People end up getting the paper currency they want. There are a few trial-balloon types of coin/paper currencies they don't want, and a few novelty paper currencies like $2 bills just because.
But lots of people seek to avoid unpopular denominations in coin or paper simply because the inconvenience factor. We have dollar coins, and $2 bills, but nobody likes them, cashiers in stores give you grief (no slot in the till for them). So they end up as novelties.