Honestly, I just don’t know how I feel about this. Granted, libraries get some money and that’s a good thing, but the customers are still not actually “purchasing” something…
The 3M Cloud Library service has just inked a deal with Kobo to allow libraries to sell eBooks on their websites. When patrons click the BUY button, they will be taken to the Kobo Bookstore to finalize their digital book purchases. 3M will donate a portion of each book sale to the library for use in purchasing additional eBooks from the 3M Cloud Library. With library budgets under constant pressure, this additional revenue stream can be a valuable way to enhance collections.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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Honestly, I just don’t know how I feel about this. Granted, libraries get some money and that’s a good thing, but the customers are still not actually “purchasing” something…