Drive for library ebook service ignoring thousands, campaigners claim
LIBRARY users are being forced online, campaigners fighting against cuts to the service have claimed.
Members of Friends of Gloucestershire Library have questioned Shire Hall about the number of people signing up to the new e-book system.
They believe it is being used to mask the cuts in funding being made across the county.
And they fear the move to online services will leave many people without access to library facilities.
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Gloucestershire County Council currently has 3,191 people signed up to the ebook service since April. It has a target of 6,000 people signing up by the end of the first year.
Readers use a pin, which is given to them by the library service, to download the books for a limited period of time.
Johanna Anderson, chairman of Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries, said thousands of people could be unable to access the internet, who will miss out if the authority pushed everything online.
She insisted it could not be used as an excuse for the drop in book stocks.
"It seems the county council is trying to explain away the drop in library usage by saying more people are accessing services online," she said.
"But there are 40 per cent of people in Gloucestershire who do not have any access to the internet.
"And it does not account for the 40 per cent drop in book stock by the council at its libraries.
"It is no good forcing everybody online when so many people cannot, or do not want to, access the internet.
"They need to ask what people want rather than just assuming."
But library bosses insisted there was a growing demand for online services which they were trying to meet.
Lisa McCredie, media manager, said: "We are offering 'e' services because increasingly that is how people are choosing to read and we want to modernise our library service.
"This is in keeping with the vast majority of other library services in the country. More ebooks are sold by Amazon than traditional books now in the US.
"We have a stock budget and each year we prioritise how we spend it depending on customer needs and usage.
"This year the council has provided an injection of additional money to the stock fund. We are planning to spend £70,000 on ebooks and eAudio."
Comments
by Areaman
Friday, October 19 2012, 11:59PM
“Once again, the professional librarians are -desperate- to prove that they should still get paid and that, no matter what, things can't possibly change. They are as out of touch and desperate as the ostlers and stable boys who lost their jobs with the coming of the motorcar. FoGL and their usual suspect mates are the stuck gramaphone record of the last century ("More money for professional librarians"), time to get real - the internet in general and Amazon Marketplace in particular have rendered you, and all your training, increasingly useless. Stop trying to force the rest of us to pay your way.”
by billy25
Friday, October 19 2012, 10:18PM
“very odd that "Library bosses" mention Amazon and its increased trade in ebooks as a reason to buy ebooks. Amazon ebook buyers use Kindles. Library ebooks dont work on Kindles. Surely the rise in kindle users makes GCCs arguement for buying ebooks that you can't use on kindles a bit silly? Also the selection of ebooks on Overdrive is so limited I would like to know what they will spend this £70,000 on. How much are they spending on hardcopy books? This is nothing compared to the 40%+ cut they already made to the book budget. It should not be a case of just one or the other - ebooks or hardcopy books, Library users dont just use libraries to borrow books but for leisure too - book groups, bounce and rhyme, groups for the elderly and homework clubs. None of this can be replaced with an e-library. they should compliement each other. GCC don't seem to grasp this.”