Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Surprises

Today a patron who checks out a ton of ebooks came to the desk to ask: How does that work? How does anyone make money from that? We told him that we have to pay for the ebooks, and he was so surprised.


There was a lot of misinformation and lack of information about the library today--there was a huge 'holiday' (Christmas) open house, meaning a ton of little kids in the library. You would not believe how often people lie to their kids about the rules of the library for the sake of easier parenting!


(Well, if you're a parent, it's probably not such a surprise.)

5 comments:

  1. Wait, you PAY for ebooks? Publishers don't give them away for free? Will wonders never cease!

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  2. hee hee...i suppose people just can't believe anyone pays for digital content, even libraries...

    parents lying to their kids about library rules is a lot like parents who threaten their kids with cops

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  3. Does your ebook patron never buy himself any ebooks?

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    1. I would bet not, not just because of his confusion, but because my experience has been that the library is the first experience with ebooks for a LOT of people. Someone gets them an ereader as a gift and tells them to take it to the library and have the librarians show them how to get free books for it, and that's all they need. They may not even be aware that ebooks are sold directly to consumers.

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    2. it's hard to believe someone who reads a lot of books would know so little, but...

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