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by emh68
1193 days ago
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Libraries and publishers have always had a love/hate relationship. I'm sure book publishers are no happier that their products are being loaned out for free than the MPAA is that movies are being loaned out for free, or the RIAA is that music CDs are being loaned out for free (all of these are currently done by physical libraries in the USA). This has never been a real problem in the past, because libraries were limited by how much they could loan out, due to having a limited number of library staff, and a limited amount of shelf space. The Internet Archive is also similarly limited, due to having a limited budget to hire engineers to scale up the platform to support more users, and a limited budget for digital storage space. But it's enough that it really changes the equation, and I think that if the IA wins, we'll see less physical books printed, and the ones that are will have an increased price tag. I expect that the government will adjust the laws to keep the balance, somehow, however. |
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From the publisher's perspective, I don't think staff or shelf space were a constraint. In every library I've been in, inventory far exceeded demand for total books - lots and lots of books were available on the shelves. I.e., they weren't running out of books.
Availability of a particular book might have been limited, but that wasn't due to shelf space. It was due to available copies and to budget, both of which still impact electronic lending by libraries and the Internet Archive. The IA will only lend out as many copies as they own.
IA is very different in terms of availability: Because they distribute electronic editions, and because the Internet provides near-free, near-instantaneous global distribution of electronic editions, the reach of one book at IA far exceeds the same at a local paper library. That means library services become centralized (maybe not good for local libraries), and the new central electronic library (IA) will have far greater supply.
That should mean a far greater selection and, due to the law of large numbers, more stable availability. It doesn't necessarily mean greater availability because demand will also be much greater.