Seth

@esoterictriangle

i make things

he/him
esoterictriangle.neocities.org/

draw-er reader music-er knitter nature-er sleeper cook-er

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everyone is inherently valuable--that means you

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i'm a little goblin
enjoying the little things in life

Seth @esoterictriangle12/12/2023, 3:08 PM

library ereading platforms are secretly ridiculous

I have to preface this by saying this: I am not advocating for avoiding using these services. You should use them!! Use your library heavily and use everything they offer (and ask for them to offer more things!! I especially recommend asking your library to carry video games if they don't already)

What I am saying is I'm mad at ereading platforms for performing digital highway robery. The library I (currently) work at's consortium is voting on increasing the cost to join into the overdrive library to better reflect associated costs. They're doing this because audio books are running as high as $130 for a single copy that only one person can check out, and ebooks can go as high as $75 for the same. And these books are all only available for either 26 checkouts or one year, meaning not only are they paying more for a digital book¹, they're paying that price to rent the digital book.

The numbers make sense to librarians in a way they're really fine paying this. The price per checkout works out to be quite cheap (I do have these numbers), especially considering if it's a physical copy you have to factor in processing and fuel to hike a copy halfway across the state in many cases. I think they're very happy the cataloging and jacketing/other processing isn't on them/not necessary, too. It's generally rather easy to get room in a library budget for acquisitions/the collection, as well! What bothers me is this is all an elaborate dance the lending company (Overdrive specifically here; Hoopla has a totally different [and still spendy] pricing scheme) and (I assume) the publishers perform that obfuscates the obvious thing: digital copies are digital! The cost for storing and transferring these is all in terms of a server's hardware cost and its power consumption. There is no printing cost, there is no shipping cost, there is no need to reinforce the book for hundreds of fingers. Libraries are paying more for ebooks than you would purely because more eyes are looking at the copy and the companies setting the prices don't like that.

I don't have The Hard Numbers on price per book outside of this max price, but anecdotally from the prices my MiL (who does purchases for the system) has mentioned to me: every book is at hardcover price and often more and the audio books are being sold at book-on-CD prices. Prices also feel adjusted for popularity and/or recency

#libraries #use your local library #ebook lending platforms frustrate me on a fundamental level

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samson @squidcrusher12/12/2023, 3:39 PM

Interesting. I recently got a notice from the library that they were moving all audio books from Libby to Hoopla. I have found in generally, Hoopla has way more on it (for my library branch at least). I almost never can find a book I want to read on Libby.
Sometimes there are books I want to read and I can only find an ebook of it from my library. and the book is very visual/has charts that don't translate well into digital books. I feel like a dick asking if the library will order a book they technically already have,,,,, but sometimes I really want to lol

I didn't know about libraries having games to rent! When I was in high school the library got a grant to get either 3 or 4 Wiis, along with games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Once a week they had game night, and of course my friends and I were there every week. When I was a teen we used to hang out at the library all the time and they had a fair amount of events for teens. Now I never see anyone using the teen section when we go.
I was thinking about maybe looking into getting more involved with library next year, including joining the friends program. So maybe I could bring up video game rental to get the kids back in the library 👀

Seth @esoterictriangle12/12/2023, 4:32 PM

Hoopla has a very different structure for what is/isn't available that I'm less familiar with but in general it seems like it's "greater selection from the get-go with the tradeoff of greater cost per checkout". They also don't have a Deal with the Devil (amazon) so I can't use my kindle with it, which is probably related to my lack of exposure to how it works (plus like. my insider knowledge of either is relatively small since my role doesn't touch them outside of teaching patrons how to use them). If a library is not part of a consortium or other entity that buys into Overdrive's Special Tiers/has other libraries who do so it probably would make sense to do Hoopla, especially if patrons prefer it!

As far as asking libraries to order a book... Always Always Ask!! 1) they will likely say yes¹, 2) it provides data and librarians love data--acquisitions is really hard imo because you're trying to buy what you hope will appeal to your patrons and it's actually hard to figure that out! You can use past circulation data to know The Big Hitters but there are so many books and even more out there. Patron requests guaruntee at least one checkout and even one guarunteed checkout is far and above a "maybe someone will give this a try?", and 3) budgets for physical and digital are generally separate under one umbrella category and depending on library size may even have separate people doing the buying; even if they have something digitally that doesn't exclude it from being an option for physical! (and it may even circulate better in physical format!)

re: video games: so few people seem to know libraries are doing this. Not all of them are, but chances are good you can, at minimum, have some brought in via inter-library loan! Related to the above, libraries are way more likely to do the work of figuring out a policy and budget if they know patrons are interested in a new type of item.

re: teenz: libraries, are, unfortunately not often helping the whole "teens have no where to go hang out" problem. It's a multifaceted issue tied with curmudgeons (both patrons and staff), available space, percieved noise, lack of advertising, and a million other things but a huge help is staff and colunteers willing to MC events and/or areas for teens. Passive programs like craft kits prepped on tables for drop-bys, active events like d&d, video game tournaments, crafts, book clubs... Manpower is just as much a limit to success as the other factors. Volunteer and come in with ideas for programs! Find out if they have a dedicated teen librarian and if they don't get in touch with both the adult and children's programming librarians. Get teens back in libraries!!

with the exception of self published books, ime. Unless the author is local, libraries really don't like them--at least around here

samson @squidcrusher12/12/2023, 4:50 PM

When I requested them to order Safe and Sound the other month, the librarian was very excited and was telling me a few of them wanted to order it, but weren't sure. So I am glad I asked there! (I also may have intentionally sought out the librarian with stylized hair and pronouns on their name badge lol). The other book they ordered recently for me was actually just me requesting to borrow it, and it ended up getting purchased for our library :] Usually someone in our district has the books I want, but I'm going to try and do requests more often if I can't find what I am looking for.

Thank you for all the good info! Our library has a good sized room up in the front where they can do presentations/events, and it also means you can't hear it in the rest of the library (this is where we would have the Wiis). They also used to have these heavy fabrics they draped over sections of the teen area, so teens had a more private area to hang out and talk, but noise wouldn't travel as far. Unfortunately that area also became a "kissy zone", so it has since been removed.
There is a used game store next block over that also does ttrpg stuff and video game tournaments, so I am not sure if that discourages our library from doing it themselves? But I saw the library is having a dnd night next month. I am not huge on dnd (as in I prefer other ttrpgs), but I kinda want to go if my schedule allows just to show the library that people are interested in stuff like this.
Sometimes I feel like I borrow books from the library that I'm not 100% sure if I am interested in that book itself, but I tell myself I am passively showing the library that patrons are interested in these types of books lol. Stevie borrows almost exclusively graphic novels, and I would saw the adult graphic novel section at our library has almost doubled in the past year.

Seth @esoterictriangle12/12/2023, 5:11 PM

The eternal tension of spaces for teens is always going to partially be due to the fact teens are horny 😅

ttrpgs are Just Good but also make Good Library Activities, so hopefully it takes off (and the people in charge can be pursuaded there are other better-for-what-often-attracts-people games to run... but it's hard cuz dnd has name recognition). I obviously can't speak for your library but in my area there's lots of interest in doing ttrpgs (well. dnd, because again: it's what they know) but hesitancy due to lack of DM/unsure how to source one. Escape rooms also seem to be growing in the realm of "activities in the librarian hive consciousness"

Checking out a book 100% affects the books that are purchased. Circ and usage stats are a huge part of being a librarian and every use of an item and visit to a program means a ton!

samson @squidcrusher12/12/2023, 5:18 PM

It is cool to see things expand based on use! What is really fun right now is watching the puzzle area in my library expand. It was just a small shelf to now there is an old janitorial closet converted the puzzle room. Every time I go through it, there are tons of puzzles I didn't see last time. I was there today to pick up a hold and the person in front of me was returning about half a dozen puzzles.

toad @toad12/12/2023, 7:11 PM

this post inspired me to see if our library system has video games and while a cursory search indicates no, i am fascinated by the items categorized as “unknown”

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