|
Yeah I've almost given up on my library's collection. Most of their books have 1 or 2 copies and waiting lists with 5-20 people. Not to mention the last recent books added to their collection's been only slightly above E-Harlequinn romance books. edit: Just checked, they actually are E-Harlequinn. Seriously? 11 people waiting for this trash?
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 02:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 06:45 |
|
|
When you say that there's some number of people in line for the library book, how does that work? Is the book automatically sent to them for (how many?) days or do they have a window of time to download it before they get skipped, or what? edit: And as for 11 people waiting on the romance novel, that's not really surprising. It's easily the most embarrassing kind of book to buy/check out at the library, so electronic formats are going to be disproportionately popular for them.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 06:12
|
|
|
Ara posted:When you say that there's some number of people in line for the library book, how does that work? Is the book automatically sent to them for (how many?) days or do they have a window of time to download it before they get skipped, or what? You add yourself to the waiting list, and it lets you know how many people are ahead of you. Once your turn comes, you have 3 days to download the book, or you get skipped. Once you've downloaded the book, you have it for 2 weeks. These things may be customizable by the individual libraries though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 08:14
|
|
|
I just got a refurbished Nook, and holy schlamoly, I think this thing is my new favorite device. I need to go finish my library registration.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 08:27
|
|
|
Why do you have to wait in line for an ebook? It's not an actual physical product you don't have to keep it in stock you... what the gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 10:42
|
|
|
Mu Zeta posted:Why do you have to wait in line for an ebook? It's not an actual physical product you don't have to keep it in stock you... what the gently caress. If there were no licensing of this type, the whole system would be impossible. If a publisher could sell a single copy of an ebook to a library (unless the markup was absolutely massive) and then hundreds of people could simultaneously get it for free from the library's single copy, the publisher would lose a huge amount of money. Which means that there would be absolutely no incentive to do library ebooks at all.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 11:27
|
|
|
I got Sony PRS-505 from the times there weren't a million different models of readers around and thinking about upgrading. But I just can't decide if it is worth it; Sure it is slowish at opening big files and has no wifi or touchscreen, but comparing with the screens of current eInk readers there is hardly any difference in contrast. Does anyone have a personal experience with such upgrade?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 12:51
|
|
|
Pyromancer posted:I got Sony PRS-505 from the times there weren't a million different models of readers around and thinking about upgrading. But I just can't decide if it is worth it; Sure it is slowish at opening big files and has no wifi or touchscreen, but comparing with the screens of current eInk readers there is hardly any difference in contrast. Does anyone have a personal experience with such upgrade? I upgraded a couple of months ago from the prs-505 to the prs-650, after a few months of dithering about whether I really needed an upgrade or not. I'm very pleased with my 650 and am happy I upgraded.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 15:15
|
|
|
Mu Zeta posted:Why do you have to wait in line for an ebook? It's not an actual physical product you don't have to keep it in stock you... what the gently caress. Publishers trying to shoehorn physical limitations on a digital product. Ara posted:If there were no licensing of this type, the whole system would be impossible. If a publisher could sell a single copy of an ebook to a library (unless the markup was absolutely massive) and then hundreds of people could simultaneously get it for free from the library's single copy, the publisher would lose a huge amount of money. Which means that there would be absolutely no incentive to do library ebooks at all. I don't see how they would lose a huge amount of money. What's the difference between 30 people waiting for a book and those same 30 people getting the book at the same time? They already decided that they aren't going to buy it for whatever reason.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 15:47
|
|
|
Sporadic posted:I don't see how they would lose a huge amount of money. What's the difference between 30 people waiting for a book and those same 30 people getting the book at the same time? They already decided that they aren't going to buy it for whatever reason. If I wanted to read a book, tried the library and saw the waiting list was 30 people (meaning my wait would be over a year), I would just buy it. I can't be alone in this. edit: what I mean is not every library user is either a spendthrift Scrooge McDuck or homeless. The library can be a convenient way to read books you might not otherwise purchase, and it can also be an inconvenient way to read books you'd rather purchase than wait for days/weeks/years. It can be a million other things too. Fly Ricky fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Apr 30, 2011 |
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 16:07
|
|
|
petewhitley posted:If I wanted to read a book, tried the library and saw the waiting list was 30 people (meaning my wait would be over a year), I would just buy it. I can't be alone in this. Yeah, this is what I meant. If it were free to download for anybody who wanted it at any time, there would be way, way more than those 30 people willing to wait in line downloading it. There would be virtually zero incentive to purchase ebook versions of anything that your library owned, even if it were something that you were really excited to read and would normally buy without hesitation. edit: It would probably even lead to a decline in paper book sales once people got wind of the idea that they could buy an ebook reader and get everything for free. It could be suicide for the whole industry, in any form except a Netflix-style subscription deal. Ara fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Apr 30, 2011 |
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 16:26
|
|
|
So I live in Canada and I am looking for an affordable e-reader. The Kobo caught my attention for being cheap, stripped-down, and yet still very usable. I've been checking out the other major devices and I don't feel that the extra features justify the price. Also I feel that the lack of file support is somewhat remedied by Calibre, is this true? Can anyone who owns (or doesn't own) a Kobo tell me about what they like and don't like about it? How it compares to other devices? As for the Kobo vs. the Kobo Wireless, I personally find the new features not worthy of the 30-50 extra dollars. Kobo Wireless:
Serotoning fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Apr 30, 2011 |
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 17:11
|
|
|
Ara posted:Yeah, this is what I meant. If it were free to download for anybody who wanted it at any time, there would be way, way more than those 30 people willing to wait in line downloading it. There would be virtually zero incentive to purchase ebook versions of anything that your library owned, even if it were something that you were really excited to read and would normally buy without hesitation. To be frank here, it is already easier to pirate an ebook than to sign up for a library's digital services, activate a device, and wait to get a copy (assuming the library even bought one for the book you want). As for your edit, the music industry hasn't collapsed even though every one knows you can buy an mp3 player and get all the music you want for free at minimal risk so.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 17:44
|
|
|
fishmech posted:To be frank here, it is already easier to pirate an ebook than to sign up for a library's digital services, activate a device, and wait to get a copy (assuming the library even bought one for the book you want). Why bring a pirate to a librarian vs. publisher fight? (It's not even a fight, libraries pay-for or are-given the individual books they loan, it's pretty simple. You can't expect them to have an infinite stock. It's easier to do a lot of things than legally obtain a copy of a particular book.)
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 17:59
|
|
|
Pyromancer posted:I got Sony PRS-505 from the times there weren't a million different models of readers around and thinking about upgrading. But I just can't decide if it is worth it; Sure it is slowish at opening big files and has no wifi or touchscreen, but comparing with the screens of current eInk readers there is hardly any difference in contrast. Does anyone have a personal experience with such upgrade? I went from a 505 to a 650. It's awesome. The touchscreen takes a bit of getting used to, since you don't have those buttons on the side to use, and the big round page turn button is now just 2 small buttons near the bottom of the screen. Screen is great, and much sharper than the 505's. It's the same as the new kindle, the pearl screen. It's basically like looking at a piece of paper. I ain't gonna lie, I miss my leather paperback holder like the 505 had, but the 650 was pretty sweet. Also, TONS more room for books. I have something like 1000 books on mine and still have 730 megs to fill up. That's awesome for a bibliophile like me. Plus you can still sell the 505s for 100$ or so pretty easily on ebay. They were some of the best made readers around.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 18:07
|
|
|
petewhitley posted:Why bring a pirate to a librarian vs. publisher fight? Well the idea that libraries would ever lead to the collapse of publishers is silly. Libraries were around for literal millenia before anything resembling a modern publishing company was formed.  Even if libraries loaned out infinite copies of digital books they have I really don't see how that would mean noone would ever buy books again. It's not like libraries get digital copies of every book ever, and it also isn't as if everyone can use any library they want! Not to mention that the most popular reader doesn't have any library support yet either.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 18:14
|
|
|
hope and vaseline posted:Whee, finally got around to rooting my Nook classic. Take that, color rooters! Are there any essential apps? I haven't gotten around to doing much besides getting used to the awesome nookLibrary (hell yeah, combined B+N books and my documents, folder and tag browsing, and cover flow for all books!) and this reader hack. Haven't been able to get the custom font changes working, mostly using it for the ability to full-screen the text so it hides the upper status bar and the bottom page count. Can you link to the method you used to root yours? Apparently the easy softroot method doesn't work on new hardware 
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 19:30
|
|
|
Pvt. Parts posted:So I live in Canada and I am looking for an affordable e-reader. The Kobo caught my attention for being cheap, stripped-down, and yet still very usable. I just ordered a Kindle and my friend has a Kobo... she seems to be pretty happy with it overall in sort of a smug 'it does what I need it to do' kind of way. I wouldn't and didn't touch a Kobo with a ten-foot pole but if you're absolutely positive you're never going to want to do anything else with your device, you should be fine with a Kobo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 23:08
|
|
|
neongrey posted:I just ordered a Kindle and my friend has a Kobo... she seems to be pretty happy with it overall in sort of a smug 'it does what I need it to do' kind of way. I wouldn't and didn't touch a Kobo with a ten-foot pole but if you're absolutely positive you're never going to want to do anything else with your device, you should be fine with a Kobo. When you say "...never going to want to do anything else with your device...", what else are you referring to? Also why wouldn't you touch it?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2011 23:51
|
|
|
Because I want to be able to do things like browse the internet, lovely browser and all, or poke through the Amazon store to grab new books, etc, etc. I like having the option of being able to stick an album of mp3s on that I can listen to at work overnight (admittedly not a huge factor, but something nice). Basically, I wouldn't ever use a Kobo because the additional features of a Kindle appeal to me (and honestly a Nook would have been my first choice, but those are just less useful in Canada). If the only thing you want to do ever with it is read books, you'll be perfectly happy with a Kobo.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 00:21
|
|
|
Also Kindle has a much wider book selection for it and has actual good customer service.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 00:24
|
|
|
neongrey posted:Because I want to be able to do things like browse the internet, lovely browser and all, or poke through the Amazon store to grab new books, etc, etc. I like having the option of being able to stick an album of mp3s on that I can listen to at work overnight (admittedly not a huge factor, but something nice). Then I guess a Kobo's perfect for me. I want an e-reader (preferably with a large e-ink) display to read books, nothing else. Do you know of other e-readers which fit this description?
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 01:12
|
|
|
Pvt. Parts posted:Then I guess a Kobo's perfect for me. I want an e-reader (preferably with a large e-ink) display to read books, nothing else. Do you know of other e-readers which fit this description? The Kindle, which has more books to read and actual customer service if you have problems. Buying a Kobo is like buying a Betamax VCR.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 01:15
|
|
|
fishmech posted:Well the idea that libraries would ever lead to the collapse of publishers is silly. Libraries were around for literal millenia before anything resembling a modern publishing company was formed. Publishers lose money on a great many of their books, and the heavy-hitters (which every library gets) make up for it. Infinite free copies of the big-name books could make a huge dent in their sales figures. Libraries have been around for millennia, but libraries with infinite copies of books haven't. Have you ever tried to get the paper copy of a really popular book from the library and found out that the line was over 100 people long? And yes there is piracy but LEGAL free copies of things are way different from pirated copies. Like, how many people would buy a newly-released game on Steam for full price if you had a code to get it added to your account for free for two weeks that could be renewed forever (let's say a single-player game that you will play through once, like a book!)? I personally buy all of my ebooks but if there were infinite copies at the library I would check it first every time and probably never buy any of them that the library had unless it was one of my all-time favorite authors who I want to support.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 01:51
|
|
|
Ara posted:Publishers lose money on a great many of their books, and the heavy-hitters (which every library gets) make up for it. Infinite free copies of the big-name books could make a huge dent in their sales figures. Libraries have been around for millennia, but libraries with infinite copies of books haven't. Have you ever tried to get the paper copy of a really popular book from the library and found out that the line was over 100 people long? Infinite free copies of ebooks that you can only access with a certain device and only if your library even has the book int he first place is actually a number of hoops to jump through! You can do that, it's called the pirate bay and its why PC games have like 10 pirate copies for every legit copy sold.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 02:03
|
|
|
Ara posted:Publishers lose money on a great many of their books, and the heavy-hitters (which every library gets) make up for it. Infinite free copies of the big-name books could make a huge dent in their sales figures. Libraries have been around for millennia, but libraries with infinite copies of books haven't. Have you ever tried to get the paper copy of a really popular book from the library and found out that the line was over 100 people long? Does it really matter? It is still getting content for free even if you have to wait for it. But I think you are on a different page. I don't think anybody is saying that it should be a infinite free copies that can be renewed forever but there has to be a better solution than "they buy a set number of files, they can only rent out the set number of files" as if it is a physical product. That is stupid. It is acting like people will go "oh no I have to wait, let me spend $10+ on the book" instead of "well, I'll get something else to hold me over until it is available" A much better solution would be to treat it like a digital rental. Have the libraries buy it at an inflated cost, let them give it out to whoever wants it for the normal 2 week rental period (?) and put something in place where they can't check that ebook out again for a year (or two). That way there isn't bullshit artificial shortages and people have an incentive to purchase a copy if they want (but they don't or they would have went to Amazon/random bookseller in the first place) Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 04:07 on May 1, 2011 |
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 04:03
|
|
|
Sporadic posted:That is stupid. It is acting like people will go "oh no I have to wait, let me spend $10+ on the book" instead of "well, I'll get something else to hold me over until it is available" Actually, that's exactly how discriminative pricing works. People who really want that latest book will gladly spend the money not to wait. People who don't think the book is worth that much to them, and therefore wouldn't have paid anyways, will be willing to wait to avoid the cost. It's the same principal behind sales at stores. People who are willing to pay retail price for things buy them when they need them. People who aren't willing to pay those prices wait for sales. Stores want everyone's money, but they cannot lower prices if some people are willing to pay more, instead they temporarily lower them to get the bargain hunters.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 04:23
|
|
|
Sporadic posted:It is acting like people will go "oh no I have to wait, let me spend $10+ on the book" instead of "well, I'll get something else to hold me over until it is available" Yeah, this is exactly what I would do. I'd much rather spend $10 than wait months for something that I want to read. $10 isn't that much money, it's not worth waiting that long to me just to save $10.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 04:50
|
|
|
dopaMEAN posted:People who really want that latest book will gladly spend the money not to wait. But wouldn't those same people skip the whole process and just buy the book regardless? Ara posted:Yeah, this is exactly what I would do. I'd much rather spend $10 than wait months for something that I want to read. $10 isn't that much money, it's not worth waiting that long to me just to save $10. Like this, I don't get. If $10 is such a nothing amount to you, why would you even try the library in the first place?
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 06:14
|
|
|
Getting library books digitally is a substantially harder process than buying or pirating. Buying: Go to reader's store, search, buy book, it's downloaded. Pirating: Go to website, search, download book, put it on directly or maybe convert Library: Go to website, make sure you've registered for library properly, search, reserve it or get it, make sure your reader supports it properly. Lose access to book after a set period of time, or likely never get book as the library's selection is lacking. Even with unlimited copies, you only remove one piece of complexity.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 06:22
|
|
|
fishmech posted:Getting library books digitally is a substantially harder process than buying or pirating. But if there were no waiting and unlimited copies, people would have more incentive to use the library, which would mean fewer people who cared enough not to pirate would be buying books. Libraries are currently a pain in the rear end, so people will pay to avoid the hassle. If libraries weren't a pain in the rear end, why on earth would anyone want to pay for a book they plan to read once?
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 06:54
|
|
|
dopaMEAN posted:But if there were no waiting and unlimited copies, people would have more incentive to use the library, which would mean fewer people who cared enough not to pirate would be buying books. If there were unlimited copies you still need to have a library that has ebooks, they need to even have the title you want, and you need a reader that handle library books. That's a pretty big hurdle. You're making an excellent argument for piracy, not one against making libraries easier. Most library systems don't even have electronic book lending available, whereas you can "lend" the same Kindle book to 5 other people at any one time by temporarily hitching their device to your account. Theoretically, you could give the same Kindle book to everyone with a Kindle if you had the patience, and it isn't even illegal!
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 06:59
|
|
|
Doc Faustus posted:Can you link to the method you used to root yours? Apparently the easy softroot method doesn't work on new hardware There's a couple of different ways to do it on post 1003 serial number nooks, but this is the one that worked for me. http://nookdevs.com/Rooting_1.5_on_any_hardware You need a WAP to connect to, and you need to have ADB up and running (I used this ADB over USB guide, just follow steps 1-9 and skip step 2). I should warn you it took me an hour and a half and a lot of frustration before the root went through, I messed it up a couple of times. It's smooth sailing up to Getting Root Access, your nook becomes very unstable after that, and if you get lucky and get a wireless ADB connection at that point you need to push init.rc in 1-2 seconds or you've lost your window. Once that's done though, after you reboot you won't need to do the browser crash to ADB connect and you're good to install nook apps from there. But it's a lot less hassle than downgrading to 1.4 and loving around with your router, at least in my opinion. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 14:49 on May 1, 2011 |
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 14:46
|
|
|
I thought wait lists for library ebooks would be a problem, but it's not. Most people I talk to just want to read books on their new device. There may be a few specific titles they want, but everyone I've talked to is happy to look and find something different to read if they have to wait. I haven't heard a single complaint about having to wait. Some people bitch about having to wait for physical copies but even there most of the patrons I talk to know there will be a wait and they're okay with that. It's part of how the system works. There's another system in place if you don't want to wait and I have talked to people who didn't want to wait forever for a book and went and bought it. Mostly that was for Twilight. Libraries can buy multiple "copies" of ebooks. Ours does but I don't think users can see that. In the online catalog, patrons see not only how many holds there are on an item but how many items there are. I'm pretty sure they don't see the number of copies in the ebook catalog. So they may see 30 holds on a book but not see that there's 20 copies of it. I'll have to ask about that. Pirating is a hell of a lot easier than downloading a library ebook. There's a webcomic about the process that I wanted to blow up and put in the staff room. But the process probably won't be streamlined any time soon. The steps are all necessary for everything to work right and for licensing issues. But I haven't heard of any patrons implying that they've found another source of free ebooks. And I do get patrons who like to brag about their skillz. If people are cool telling me how they copy our DVDs and give them to friends and find music fast without waiting for us to order CDs, I'm sure they'd be bragging about their free ebooks. But I've never heard anyone talk about actually pirating ebooks outside of forums like this or articles that make it sound like everyone who can read is downloading the entire NY Times bestseller list from THE INTERNET. The process of getting library ebooks gets a lot better once you've done it a few times. Really, after you've gotten the software and authorized your device it's not a big deal at all.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 16:54
|
|
|
Devi posted:Pirating is a hell of a lot easier than downloading a library ebook. There's a webcomic about the process that I wanted to blow up and put in the staff room. I'd like to see that! My fiance is in library school right now, and we talk about this kind of thing a lot. I think it would make sense for publishers to charge less for ebooks. The book I'm reading right now is $9 as a nook book, and $9 as a physical book. I know that their costs are almost nonexistant for the nook book, so it's silly for them to expect me to pay that much. Once pricing is in line with what people feel is fair, I imagine pirating will become less of an issue. They just need to find the price point where effort of pirating and associated guilt > cost of an ebook.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 17:03
|
|
|
Devi posted:
My local library gets their ebooks through overdrive, which I *think* is the biggest game in town. I can see the number of copies owned, the number of copies available, and the number of holds. And yeah, once you have it set up, the process of downloading a book through ADE and transfering it to your device is about as much work as downloading a book through bittorrent.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 17:10
|
|
|
dopaMEAN posted:I'd like to see that! I really like the $10 price point for most books. It's when the e-book edition is more expensive than the paperback that I think is complete bullshit.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 17:44
|
|
|
Devi posted:If people are cool telling me how they copy our DVDs and give them to friends and find music fast without waiting for us to order CDs, I'm sure they'd be bragging about their free ebooks. I was just wondering if that kind of thing was as common or even possible with ebooks.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 18:01
|
|
|
Foaming Chicken posted:I was just wondering if that kind of thing was as common or even possible with ebooks. It is absolutely possible to quickly and easily wipe away the DRM on ebooks from any of the major vendors. Because most library ebook systems use Adobe's DRM, the same system used by Sony's store and others, it's pretty well documented how to do it.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 18:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 06:45 |
|
|
Doc Faustus posted:It is absolutely possible to quickly and easily wipe away the DRM on ebooks from any of the major vendors. Because most library ebook systems use Adobe's DRM, the same system used by Sony's store and others, it's pretty well documented how to do it. drat, I guess the comparisons to mp3s are accurate. It wasn't too long ago that I saw a textbook pdf that had been hand-scanned in B&W. 
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2011 18:31
|
|