With my local library (Santa Clara county), I've noticed that there is no requirement to revalidate my local address. After I move away, I would presumably join my new library, but I'd still have the option to log back in on my Kobo E-reader using my SCCL membership. I love Overdrive, but I think a lot of users abuse the system in this way.
E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
131–140 of 163 posts
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
You moved the goal post. Books can't cover everything but deal with the general. SO/blogs are typically concerned with corner cases or specific assignements/problems.
> SO/blogs are typically concerned with corner cases or specific assignements/problems. No, blog posts and online documentation are hardly limited in such a fashion. They cover everything from corner cases to syntax introductions, to setting up the environment. Go, as a single example in a sea of examples, has their entire official getting started and other guides entirely online: https://golang.org/doc/ And while SO…
>> SO/blogs are typically concerned with corner cases or specific assignements/problems.
> No, blog posts and online documentation are hardly limited in such a fashion.
I purposefully didn't mention online documentation because it's too easy to make the case that man pages are more often than not too obscure as starting material.
Blog posts don't cover everything. Online doc. does though (that's like... the point).
The way you are trying to build the argument that it's either paper books or online/e-books/blog/SO and there are mutually exclusive won't lead the conversation anywhere (note the usage of the word 'typically').
I am not getting into a cherry-picking argument contest with you. You prefer e-books and online doc and dislike paper books ? Fine by me.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a consumer, the digital e-book is inherently more valuable than a physical book. I often re-read or consult books (or chapters) I've read on a whim. If I had to e.g. take my library on vacations to do the same thing I can trivially do on a Kindle I'd need to travel with a minivan full of books. There's all sorts of other value, like search functions, not having to fill my house or storage box with books, and avoid…
I feel exactly the opposite. I hate reading stuff on screens. - It hurts my eyes when I do this for hours. - It comes with lots of distractions. - Digital Annotations are a PITA - Zapping through a book works much better in hard-copy If I am supposed to spent 1h+ reading your content. You better make sure I can buy a printed copy.
You might like a Kobo E-reader. Zero distractions and sneaky "special offers" options, and it has a traditional e-ink display.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#134> There’s a tension in e-book pricing generally between consumer expectations that a digital file will be less expensive than a physical copy and the reality that very little of the cost of making a book is tied up in the physical format There's more to this than the cost of making a book. As a consumer, a physical thing inherently has more value than a digital one because it keeps the value after I buy it. I can len…
Not to mention libraries may only loan an ebook X number of times. A librarian told me this when I asked if there was a way to donate my digital ebook to them for their collection. Answer: no. Reason: because the ebook they have has a lending cap.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Video piracy's gone down specifically due to Netflix. As each brand stops allowing Neflix to host their content, and as long as income remains to flat for a large portion of America, I'm expecting video piracy to make a comeback as soon as people remember it exists. Subscribing to HBO, CBS, Disney, and whoever else, on top of Netflix, will soon become cost prohibitive. Doing without isn't a consideration, so illegal…
It's more about the convenience than the price, for me. I'd pay $30, maybe $40, per month for access to basically anything I want to watch (past that I may as well buy as I watch, and even at $40 I'd have to do the math to make sure it's sensible). It's having to keep up with several subscriptions, having to figure out where something is when I want to watch it, inconveniences like logging in on a new device, expired…
$40 would get you three or four full seasons of any individual show on Amazon, if you're lucky. There isn't anywhere that $40 would get you what you want. Disney+ is probably going to be the future, as much as I hate to say that.
Edit: I pay for netflix, I pay for amazon prime, and I'm a member of a really good tv piracy site. My wife is happy with the TV access we have. My thing is video games so I don't actually care about TV.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a consumer, the digital e-book is inherently more valuable than a physical book. I often re-read or consult books (or chapters) I've read on a whim. If I had to e.g. take my library on vacations to do the same thing I can trivially do on a Kindle I'd need to travel with a minivan full of books. There's all sorts of other value, like search functions, not having to fill my house or storage box with books, and avoid…
But such a back and forth that could go on forever. Many e-books vendors frequently reduce their value by limiting access to a specific app/reader, or limit how useful the functionality you describe can be. For example, search is very much restricted within Kindle (e.g. I can't search for words across my entire library, I have to go into a specific book). And whilst it is true that some people are limited in how much…
> Many e-books vendors frequently reduce their value by limiting access to a specific app/reader, or limit how useful the functionality you describe can be
Yup, this is why I'm a fan of the likebook/boox type e readers. They all run stripped down versions of Android and many of them have SD card slots too. I use the likebook Mars (~$200) as my daily reader only (bigger ones are nice if your budget allows) and it is so much nicer than the Kindles imo. Default reader can handle all formats, you can dump your own fonts and dictionaries on it, and you can run the Kindle, kobo, libby, etc apps if you want to (since you can use Google play). Ofc being a cheap Chinese e reader it isn't exactly something that can run real apps at more than a couple fps but it's great for static content like books.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#137> There’s a tension in e-book pricing generally between consumer expectations that a digital file will be less expensive than a physical copy and the reality that very little of the cost of making a book is tied up in the physical format There's more to this than the cost of making a book. As a consumer, a physical thing inherently has more value than a digital one because it keeps the value after I buy it. I can len…
E-Books have some convenience that physical books don't:
1. I can pick it up from any device I have at any time,
2. I can pick up any book depending on my mood at that point in time (I usually read one fiction, one non-fiction and one craft related simultaneously)
3. I can highlight and keep notes with the book that's in a form I can just copy-paste later. More than a few times I have now bought the e-book even though I own the physical book.
For me these things make the cost worth it. That said I lament the things you mention above. I want to be able to "own" the book and be able to transfer or resell after I'm done. I also want guarantee that I can keep reading the book forever. Either that or a more Spotify model (Amazon Kindle Unlimited has limited selection so far) that I can just rent x number of books and month and don't have to own it. I'd be fine with that. It's the in between model where I have to pay more than paperback but can't resell it or even give it to a friend that bothers me - if anything as a matter of principle.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, the opposite is true for me. Ebooks download immediately and take up zero space, you can carry them all with you in one device. Way better than physical books as far as I'm concerned. Also, in terms of the sheer entertainment to cost ratio books are incredibly good value at current pricing.
I think the divide here's largely along the lines of what people read. E-readers are king for light fiction or airport nonfic, for instance, but pretty awful for heavy nonfiction reading (think: textbooks), with everything else falling somewhere in between—poetry: somewhat bad on ereaders but maybe tolerable, depending on what it is; good, older literature, depends on how much you want/need footnotes or to refer to o…
"Tablets are better in some ways than e-readers but much worse in others. There's no killer does-everything-pretty-well e-reader solution yet. They rock for casual, lighter reading, though, which is probably a fairly high percentage of all book reading that happens."
True - and this, for me, is another benefit of eBooks; I can and do read the same eBook on multiple different devices depending on my current mix of needs or priorities.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
New question, what if it's not "company", but individual? Do we not support people who put their resources into a book? Also obligatory false dichotomy.
> Do we not support people who put their resources into a book? Another false dichotomy. Why does "support" equal banning libraries from buying books for 8 weeks, when anybody else can buy them freely?
I guess I'd call that "property rights" - the owner of the book (or its digital version) should be able to sell or not sell to whomever she wants.
Re: E-books at local libraries: a fight between publishers and librarians
#140> There’s a tension in e-book pricing generally between consumer expectations that a digital file will be less expensive than a physical copy and the reality that very little of the cost of making a book is tied up in the physical format There's more to this than the cost of making a book. As a consumer, a physical thing inherently has more value than a digital one because it keeps the value after I buy it. I can len…
E-Books have some convenience that physical books don't: 1. I can pick it up from any device I have at any time, 2. I can pick up any book depending on my mood at that point in time (I usually read one fiction, one non-fiction and one craft related simultaneously) 3. I can highlight and keep notes with the book that's in a form I can just copy-paste later. More than a few times I have now bought the e-book even thoug…
Stick it in Calibre, there are conversion plugins the deal with drm.