Our Google graphic shows a book today, for national library day.
Yet any local Barnes & Noble has a significantly larger inventory and selection and many more resources than a local library.
At a time when Blockbuster can send me DVDs by mail and manage a queue of those, book stores can add rentals to their models. Similar to the video plans, they would let customers pay a fixed monthly fee for having a specific number of books out.
To be clear -- this is not an idea about receiving books by mail. Rather, it's an idea of having large book stores offer a rental service.-- theircompetitor, Apr 10 2005 Postal library service, one of many http://www.eamtc.ca...Y_INSTRUCTIONS.htmlNot sure how widespread these services are... [Basepair, Apr 10 2005] heres the link re:Library of Congress http://en.wikipedia...Library_of_congressborrowing documents and other research mats. from LCL is a allowed only as a last resort [dentworth, Apr 11 2005] Well, apparently Amazon beat Barnes & Noble to this one http://content.usat...his-year%E2%80%9D/1 [theircompetitor, Oct 23 2010] I think postal libraries exist but I'll check. One problem might be the weight of books which would add postage costs (or 'shipping', in the case of encyclopaedias)....-- Basepair, Apr 10 2005 the goal is NOT postal libraries -- the blockbuster analogy is confusing there, sorry.
The goal is that major chains should have a rental model, in addition to a sale model.-- theircompetitor, Apr 10 2005 Would they not then have to keep a larger inventory?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 10 2005 If the business warrants it, sure. But have you seen the size of a typical suburban B&N as compared to the local library?-- theircompetitor, Apr 10 2005 I've yet to set foot in one but I'll take your word for it.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 10 2005 I'd be curious to know if a typical Barnes and Noble really has a higher title count than a typical library. Yes, they're often larger but they also shelve many copies of the same title.-- bristolz, Apr 10 2005 My neighboring library system lists 40577 fiction works, 1140 reference works. I think that between the Barnes & Noble and nearby B.Dalton there are that many.
I can't help but ponder the similarity of public libraries and public postal services -- either likely candidate for privatization. There are economic reasons sufficient to eliminate either, there are social reasons to eliminate either, there are entrepreneurial reasons to eliminate either. Seems like a great subject on which to fire an emotional debate on the costs/benefits of monopoly control.-- reensure, Apr 10 2005 Video stores are already having trouble with rental DVDs and videos. The ability to download or receive videos by mail is growing. Only those that are too impulsive to wait or be able to plan ahead need go to the store. The same problem could be seen at the rental bookstore (or library) with ebooks and a WIFI download for the electronic rights to the material. Especially if an electronic book replacement took off. Still B&N could rent the book and if you fail to return or it's damaged then they charge you the purchase price plus a fuss fee (something like the new Blockbuster "no late fees" model, assuming it survives the court case).
In your ideas favor, I could see it being somewhat a profitable idea as well. Instead of seeing a fat $24.95 price for taking the book home it’s only .2495 per day. The happy consumer will just pick up a dozen books for a couple bucks, never be able to read them all and place on bookshelf. 2 months later (after the acceptable return time) their credit card is charged in full. The books become Christmas gifts.-- Widgit, Apr 10 2005 From Wickopedia "With over 128 million items, it is one of the largest libraries in the history of the world, surpassed only by the British Library, which contains over 150 million items. With over 520 miles of shelves, the Library of Congress certainly is the longest library in the world."
yes, not a local library, but I thought this was an interesting bit of trivia. I think on a local level this is a good idea, tc.+-- dentworth, Apr 10 2005 Where's the gold standard comment? Was it deleted?-- bristolz, Apr 11 2005 I didn't delete anything.-- theircompetitor, Apr 11 2005 Why wouldn't the British libraries have larger collections? Pass on the whole seniority, never-been -burned, and always returned without an overdue fee issues; and, what you have left to consider is the amount of work produced in the US and in Britain that isn't privy to declassification or to release for the public record. An example, British cabinet papers are declassified after 60 or 70 years, I think, while the current cabinet meeting minutes are published online. I couldn't even find information about public record for the US executive cabinet minutes, if any exist, and I found a few widely scattered documents that date to the US colonial period -- likely carried off as souvenirs by Tory sympathizers in the early continental congresses. Grrr.-- reensure, Apr 12 2005 Instead of au (aurium, or 'gold'), an item used as 'gold standard' usually is preceded by 'Eg' (for example), or more particulary, 'Ie' (in essence).-- reensure, Apr 12 2005 //in essence// Are you sure? I thought it was id est ("that is").-- mouseposture, Oct 23 2010 I'm afraid such a thing might kill off some local libraries altogether. I believe libraries offer a social benefit that can't accurately be internalized into the market. I frequent both the local B&N and the library, and I'd like both to keep existing...-- cowtamer, Oct 25 2010 I don't see that as an issue really. The local library service (in the UK) isn't run for profit, and you don't pay for taking a book out, so I don't see that a private lending library service, where you pay to loan a book, would be any threat at all and might actually be a 'good thing'. Whether it would be a profitable thing for a private bookstore is a different matter, mind, but certainly worth a pilot scheme I would have thought. +-- DrBob, Oct 25 2010 random, halfbakery