The Kansas City Public Library buys e-books, and there are wait lists for electronic editions of popular titles, such as Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit From the Goon Squad, just as there are for printed versions.
Technology has allowed the library to expand its reach -- maybe too much. Library officials are trying to figure out the best way to regulate users who live outside the metropolitan area. Their demand for e-books is driving up the library's costs, but as nonresidents, they're not supporting the system with their tax dollars. They're freeloaders.
Demand for e-books, says R. Crosby Kemper III, Kansas City Public Library's executive director, has risen dramatically in the last six months. The increase, it turns out, is being driven partly by the sales of e-book readers in St. Louis.
Library officials noticed that as the collection grew, so did the requests for cards from people who live outside the district. The Kansas City Public Library allows residents of Kansas and Missouri to fax in their applications. Apparently, workers at Barnes & Noble stores in the St. Louis area have been telling customers that the Kansas City Public Library is easy to join and a great source of free material. (Barnes & Noble sells the Nook reader.)
Mooch-minded literature lovers in the eastern part of the state are causing the Kansas City Public Library to spend "hard-dollar resources," Kemper says. The library buys one e-book for every four holds that users place, following the same metric it uses for hard copies. So if four people in St. Louis County want, say, a downloadable version of David McCullough's forthcoming history of Americans in Paris, that's one more e-book the library will need to purchase.
The number of out-of-town requests has become unmanageable, Kemper says. Library officials are considering ways to charge out-of-district cardholders for e-book privileges. Denying nonresidents the ability to check out pixel books is also a possibility.
Kemper says he likes the idea of the library having patrons in other places. At the same time, he wants to protect local residents. "It's a cost that shouldn't be borne by our taxpayers," he says.
A politically active member of a prominent family, Kemper is a connected fellow. He recently spoke with a judge in Callaway County who explores the library's e-book collection. "He was complaining to me that he couldn't get the book he wanted," he says. "I said, 'Come on, you're getting it for free. Don't complain.' "
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The KCPL is a city agency isn't it? Why in the world do they give people who are not residents of KC unrestricted access to these e-books?
you take money from those other people via tax money that goes to the state capital and to dc and then comes back
publicly funded libraries like all other tax funded is better left to the private companies
except for the military and courts systems everything else should be funded by those who want or use the services
I hope we can find an equitable solution to this problem. I'm all for reading - by everyone - and in any form. However, as a tax-paying citizen of KCMO, I'm NOT a fan of allowing non-residents to use our services for free. Every time our library services a non-resident, we taxpayers are essentially sending cash to that person. A reading freeloader is still a freeloader.
For some reason, I thought that was already a requirement. I remember when I used my library card for the first time, I couldn't use the self check-out for books and had to see a clerk and show them my ID before I could use the card.
Additionally, I've lived in other areas that had a residency requirement to check out books at the public library. I grew up in a small town that didn't have much of a library selection, but was able to get a library card in a neighboring town, as long as I lived in a bordering county and paid a annual fee of something like $15 for minors and $25 for adults.
There's no current viable alternative to Overdrive, though I truly wish they would redesign their interface or face some real competition.
I'd just as soon do away with putting more money into the broken ebook/audiobook (mp3/wma) system until the licenses are more in line with reality. There should never be a reason to wait for an ebook - there is no physical copy restriction.
Also, are there any alternatives to Overdrive? It is such a horrible mess to use that site to get audiobooks/ebooks.
Interesting, because the St. Louis County Library has a good collection of eBooks -- why would we need to go to Kansas City?
There's also another issue: one publisher at least is allowing their eBooks to be checked out 26 times, only. At that point, the library than has to buy another eBook license. Other publishers are considering the same idea.
I've been very wary of checking out an eBook after reading that bit of news--I want to make sure it's a book I want and will read.
Maybe they should accept people who can show KC residence OR employment :-).
This is a tough problem, and libraries other than KCPL are experiencing it as well. The reality is that the publishers and e-book vendors provide material with licenses that restrict downloads to a single user at a time while the technology would allow for much freer distribution. It's an arbitrary restriction meant to maximize profit. Freeloading is a problem because these licenses stink.
That being said, it would probably be difficult to implement a solution like the one Amanda describes without the cooperation of the vendor, but not impossible. In this budgetary climate, no one would blame the Library for cutting off non-residents entirely. Although I wonder if they did that, would it include Johnson County and other non-tax paying suburbs?
It would be worth an upfront cost for the library to create a system that filters KC residents from non-residents and then charges the non residents for their e-books and other library cost items.
The Topeka and Shawnee Public Library charges an ANNUAL fee of $85 for folks who live outside their district (which is much of northeast Kansas).
You can read their requirements to obtain a card here: http://www.tscpl.org/catalog/g...
That might be a way to shift some of the expense for this back to the St. Louis Moochers (sounds like a sports team, huh). Charge twice that $85 for staff of Barnes & Noble who are selling their Nooks by pointing folks to the KCPL. Or behead them.
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