On 1/14/2016 8:22 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 01/14/2016 06:22 AM, Don Y wrote:
I'm not sure if the titles she reads are strictly on the NYT best seller
list
but they are most definitely "new issues". We can't, for example, get a
title issued in the past 12 months through interlibrary loan (if our
library
doesn't have the title). So, you're pretty much stuck waiting for them
to buy some copies -- and *hoping* they do!

I know the feeling... This library buys quite a few new books but they,
properly I suppose, cater to the taste of the clientele. Several times I've
went looking for more classic titles that I know they had only to find they
were sold off to make room for more vampires.

Our library disposes of a LOT of titles! And, it appears to be a somewhat
arbitrary choice. E.g., I'm friendly with the head librarian at one
of the branches. One day, while chatting with her as she "checked in"
titles, I saw her separating the books into two piles.

I questioned her as to why the distinction: "Oh, those haven't seen
much recent readership so they'll go in the discards pile..."

WTF? But, someone just read it! Else you wouldn't be checking it
back in! And, there's lots of empty space on the shelves (in this
branch).

Yet, they want another bond issue to buy MORE books, etc.

New titles are cheaper in ebooks than paper. Amazon did a good job of price
busting; the publishers were not happy.

What I particularly enjoy is the number of obscure books that are available in
electronic format.

Some models are 3G. The 'special offers' are very non-intrusive.
Basically you
get a varying selection of ads when the device is turned off, not some
popup
every time you turn the page.

(sigh)

"This toilet paper brought to you by..."

The ads are mostly for book titles. iirc the 'special offers' model was $30 or
so cheaper and I'm not bothered by something that goes away when I turn the
device on. epaper is like an etch-a-sketch -- the display doesn't go off with
the power.

I'm not keen on yet another agency/entity tracking my "interests".
The local library opted NOT to comply with the request to track
borrowing patterns (though you know something can surreptitiously be
doing that). Recently, the outsourced their handling of the catalog,
reservations, etc. to a canadian firm. No mention of any privacy
guarantees.

So, I responded by severely reducing my patronage. And, voting AGAINST
the recent bond issue (which failed by a 3:2 margin). I guess other folks
are unhappy with their policies as well!

Then, the document and state are stored in the cloud?

Yes. If you delete a book from the device it still remains 'archived' in the
cloud and can be retrieved. I should do some deleting. One weakness I've found
with the model I have is the lack of an effective way to organize the titles.
Basically, the last accessed is first on the list.

frown I keep all my "software" (movies, music, books, etc.) on a set
of distributed mirrored volumes. This lets me impose any sort of structure
to it that seems appropriate.

E.g., I can sort music based on artist, books based on genre, etc.
"Where" a title resides (in the filesystem hierarchy) tells me
what *I* want to know about it. (It's easier to manipulate
a filesystem structure than it is to manipulate *tags* inside
individual files).

I'm not keen on relying on something else to "store" *my* stuff.
And, having to maintain a connection to that other entity just
to access *my* stuff! Nothing to stop them from charging an "access
fee" or "maintenance fee", etc.