It may be difficult to find out what ebooks are available at which libraries, short of going to each library's online catalog.
There is a central site, WorldCat.org, where you can search books, DVDs and other physical media to see where they're available. But WorldCat depends on each library to update and delete its holdings--this is pretty much automatic as part of the cataloging process for most libraries, but many (like us) don't carefully delete holdings from WorldCat as we discard titles--so you really always have to check the online catalogs of individual libraries.
Ebooks are more complicated, since they're acquired in big batches so they come and go at a moment's notice. I suspect most libraries won't be updating WorldCat for ebook holdings (especially now that budgets are being slashed).
And of course, library ebooks are only as available as physical copies would be--once a copy is "checked out", i.e. downloaded to a patron's device, it's not available to others until that patron finishes and relinquishes it or his time (2-3 weeks) runs out. We at Burbank normally buy 3-5 copies of hot titles (serving a city of 100,000). Books like Harry Potter or the Twilight series are exceptional, and even there we rely on gift copies to keep up our supply as worn-out copies are discarded. I doubt anybody will (or even could) give us their old unused ebooks. I have a couple dozen Kindle books on my iPhone that I'll never look at again.
A few publishers even treat an ebook as "worn out" after 25 uses and withdraw it, making the library buy another "copy". Yet some of our books have circulated 40 times or more and are still usable, while others may have to be retired after a dozen circs.
It's a whole new world. I'll pass on more info as I learn it in the online course on ebooks in libraries that I'm taking in January.
Misha
Lead Cataloger
Burbank (Calif.) Public Library
www.burbanklibrary.com
Posting here as a private citizen, not a representative of BPL!
On Dec 31, 2011, at 12:32 PM, Alice Saunders <whiterabbit32@gmail.com> wrote:
> So it lets you check what books are available in libraries? or does it tell you what places, like Kindle or iBook the books are available from?
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> Alice Saunders
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