3 ms·
I wonder if you can redefine the problem to not have a "good actor" distinction. For instance, instead of the normal term-based borrowing, say that every taxpay
by geofft 7y ago
I wonder if you can redefine the problem to not have a "good actor" distinction. For instance, instead of the normal term-based borrowing, say that every taxpayer gets, say, 10 books at a time, funded by the state (to promote education/culture/whatever). You can swap out those books as often as you want. You can also hold onto those books as long as you want. If they come back damaged or you lose them, they continue to count against your quota (possibly subject to a jubilee mechanism). At no point do you owe anyone anything. Also, the library is under no obligation to buy unbounded copies of any single book: they can have a hold system for popular new releases just like we do now. Only books the library can reasonably acquire more copies of (i.e., in print or public domain) are in this system; rare books maybe follow the current system or maybe aren't loanable.
People who are heavy library users aren't affected by this, they can do what they've been doing. People who want to hold onto a book for years can do that too (and the library might decide to buy more copies), but they're no longer exhibiting bad behavior and there's no reason to disincentivize them.
- closeparen 7y agoReserving a book is less useful when even the happy-path wait time is unbounded.
- em-bee 7y agoit doesn't have to be funded by the state. you can just "buy" a book off the library. in fact, you could buy the book in a book shop, and the library becomes a swapping center. as long as you bring back books in good condition, and they are in the library catalogue. (the library may not want to take multiple copies of books that are unpopular) of course paying for books up front does affect low income families and users who need many books at once. another side effect of these models is that you can swap books with your friends. you get 10 books, and i get a different 10 books and we swap with each other until we are through all 20 books together, and then each of us brings any 10 books back.
- Moru 7y agoPublic bookshelf is something that starts to pop up here and there. They are sometimes outdoors, accessible at any time or at the entrance of supermarkets. You take a book that looks interesting, read it and return later. Or just swap with some other book you own. Sometimes there are someone that takes care of the shelf, swapping content from other shelves further away. I often find interesting stuff in our local ones.
- saagarjha 7y agoI see lot of them in people’s front yards, interestingly enough.
- em-bee 7y agonow that you mention it, my brother is actually managing one or more of those. that means, from time to time he checks if anything not suitable for minors sneaks in there, or throws out stuff that is badly damaged and not worth keeping.