Let’s hope we can figure out a better way to deal with this issue.
Someone told me the other day that they went to the library to get a recent bestseller. It was checked out. They were told there were something like 200 people already on the list for the book when it comes back in! Clearly an unacceptable situation. If that many people in your community are waiting for the book then the community is not being properly served by their library system. This is where POD (print on demand) technology can do the most good.
I touched on this in my post in early January “At the Library: Books on the Chopping Block”:
“While change is good and many libraries need to be updated or enhanced with new technologies and larger meeting spaces they also need more books. If shelf space is an issue why not place one of those soon to be released Espresso, print on demand vending machines in each of these libraries. Then each user will have access to millions of titles at their fingertips. And I think it would also be appropriate to charge them for it. Let’s say a suggested donation of $3. The book is printed on demand, the user pays the $3 and can have it checked out for a month. Then they return it and it can circulate for 24 months (since this is the criteria used to weed out books) at the library. If no one else checks it out in that time the book goes to the local library sale and is sold for $1. Essentially their is no cost for library and they are able to provide all their potential users with an extensive selection of material.”
Cartoon from Nick Kim at Nearing Zero