Looking at this from the POV of economic drivers. Libraries have become steadily marginalised by the decline of print media of all kinds. Libraries have to buy

Looking at this from the POV of economic drivers. Libraries have become steadily marginalised by the decline of print media of all kinds. Libraries have to buy books to lend. They measure the times a book was accessed, and after a number of views/month, they no longer retain the book. I am sure you have seen the huge numbers of older books being re-cycled. They used to send old books to third world countries, but they have winnowed what they send as even third world countries started to refuse various old books. The University of Toronto culls their collection rigorously. This culling frees up storage space. Print books were permanent. Copyright laws have created limits on how many time an ebook can be lent. https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/books-video-music/downloads-ebooks/ebooks-faq.jsp https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/books-video-music/downlo... Note, publishers also charge 4-5 the hardcover price for ebooks AND limit the number of lends of the file. There is a large and diverse ebook torrent ecology, where an ebook can be lent endlessly. Copyright owners monitor ebooks, and insert codes in their ebooks and if they find it on torrents, they know what library was the leaker(of course, it was not the library - it was one of their borrowers, so there is some thought about the library cutting off a particular borrower), so a growing money gather by copyright owners is underway at all levels to offset the lower sales of paper based books. It is clear now that the US and world copyright system needs correction - and then their lobbying will start. https://online.yu.edu/cardozo/blog/disney-influence-copyright-law https://online.yu.edu/cardozo/blog/disney-influence-copyrigh... Did you know that in the UK a library is not allowed to repair the binding on a book as it wears out with age? Look in UK books. You will seen a small paragraph stating you may only lend out a book in it's original binding. If it wears out = no repairs, no taped in pages, no rebinding etc. https://www.bl.uk/on-demand/pricing https://www.bl.uk/on-demand/pricing There is also the PLR (public lending right) where the copyright holders and publishers receive grants that vary by country to assist in mitigating the 'losses' from lending. http://www.open-shelf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Public-Lending-Right.pdf http://www.open-shelf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Public-L...