Public libraries still the heart of bookland

According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, your best source for e-books is neither Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Nor are the all-you-can-read-for-$10-a-month – like Scribd or Oyster – the best.

Instead, it’s the public library, whose e-book collections exceed Kindle by a very wide margin – especially when it comes to best-sellers. According to the writer, “From Amazon’s own top-20 Kindle best-seller lists from 2013, 2012 and 2011, Kindle Unlimited has no more than five titles a year, while the San Francisco library has at least 16.”

Certainly taking out e-books from the library means they must be returned – or, more accurately, they simply disappear from your e-reader. And, you may have to wait for particular titles. But the cost is exactly zero, and writers and publishers recoup more from this form of distribution than from their now-sworn enemy, Amazon.

The why is simple, if a bit depressing. “Publishers,” writes the Journal, “have come to see libraries not only as a source of income, but also as a marketing vehicle. Since the Internet has killed off so many bookstores, libraries have become de facto showrooms for discovering books.”

And, of course, many people still like paper books, and some, like large-format photo books, may never quite cut it as e-books.

So, go get that library card and start borrowing.

Why the Public Library Beats Amazon – for Now (The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 12, 2014)