mariness

New York Times (yes, yes, I know) on the recent decision by Harper Collins to limit the number of times an ebook can be checked out from any given library. Slightly interesting tidbit: that despite the need to replace hardcovers/softcovers after they've worn out, libraries face losing a potential revenue source: selling off their used hardcovers/softcovers.

Other interesting tidbit not in the article: for an upcoming Tor.com post, the Orange County Library provided a 1970s copy of a children's book. So, er. Yeah.

While we're chatting about this, my main issue with Overdrive, as a consumer, is the excessively poor labelling/"shelving" of ebooks (this is also true for the Sony ebookstore.) Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, to name an example not at random, is not science fiction. And this sort of thing happens all the time.

I find Overdrive useful when I know exactly what I'm looking for -- author or title. Browsing, not so much; I've found a few books here and there, but browsing has not been the most positive experience. Which leads me in turn to the conclusion that my future reading will be even more influenced by the recommendations of friends and websites - not entirely a bad thing, but perhaps limiting my wild explorations just a little bit.

Which in turn, not entirely a bad thing: one problem I had in college when writing research papers on, say, Trotsky, was to get distracted on the way to those shelves, or even on those shelves, with a number of items that had nothing to do with Trotsky whatsoever. In marine biology grad courses, my research papers, targeted by search words, had considerably less of this kind of thing. On the other hand, those first explorations turned me into the rolling bundle of useless facts I am today.

When did it become acceptable to talk - and to talk loudly - in libraries?

Admittedly, the little Winter Garden library here is not much of a library in the classic sense, focusing as it does on public computers, DVDs and CDs. (Since, alas, my current budget does not allow for the purchasing of any DVDs, and all of you are yelling at me to catch up on Supernatural, I rather approve of this focus.) It also hosts several classes (most in a separate computer room, some in the public computer area) and various Fun Library Things, including Storytime for little kids and Rock Band for older kids. (I'm not entirely sure of the wisdom of trading in books for a Wii at an older age but the library assures us that Rock Band is hands down one of their most popular programs.) Which is to say, often the library itself is hosting Noisy Things. And this is not a library filled with Comfy Chairs (although it has a few, generally filled with people making use of the free WiFi) since its bookshelves and DVD racks are already out of space and chairs are being pulled away for more shelves and tables to hold books and other things. (I say "already" since the building was just built 2 years ago so .I would have thought they would have planned accordingly.)

But I still don't get why it's now apparently completely ok for people to hold loud conversations, sometimes by cell phone, sometimes not, in the library. In some cases, people are actually holding supposedly semi-private business conversations in the library - I overheard - more specifically, I couldn't help overhearing - a guy talking at some volume about the upcoming bankruptcy proceedings for a client's business, with names mentioned. And the thing is, none of this is getting a single glance from library patrons, let alone the "shushes" I remember from my my library visits when I was a little reader or back when I worked at a library happily stuffing books into shelves, allowing the library to be filled with more noise than your typical Barnes and Noble.