It costs a library just as much to maintain and catalog a digital book as it does a physical book.
Do you have any evidence for this? Specifically e-books do not require expensive floor space and employee time restocking shelves. While the management costs are not free I would expect them to be substantially cheaper than physical books.
The time/cost savings from not having a physical book is well offset by the amount of time needed to a) support patrons use of ebooks via apps and backends which deliver the books and b) administrative time purchasing and dealing with the publishers.
Income is lost because ebooks are never overdue and so fine income is significantly reduced over physical books.
Floor space is not reduced (we have plenty of books that need to be shelved) and reshelving costs are the lowest of any costs in the organization due to the fact that a lot of reshelving is done by volunteers.
Comments
Do you have any evidence for this? Specifically e-books do not require expensive floor space and employee time restocking shelves. While the management costs are not free I would expect them to be substantially cheaper than physical books.
The time/cost savings from not having a physical book is well offset by the amount of time needed to a) support patrons use of ebooks via apps and backends which deliver the books and b) administrative time purchasing and dealing with the publishers.
Income is lost because ebooks are never overdue and so fine income is significantly reduced over physical books.
Floor space is not reduced (we have plenty of books that need to be shelved) and reshelving costs are the lowest of any costs in the organization due to the fact that a lot of reshelving is done by volunteers.