We would like to know how may people would use a service to download electronic books and how many would support the cost of the service. Cleveland Library received a low bid this morning to offer books for download. It could cost the library $102,000 per year per each 1,000 library card holders. Since libraries and download services are being restricted by the publishers on which books may be downloaded, this service will not be offering new releases or books from most major publishers. We are offering the two new Evanovich books in hardback, while Wake and Johnston libraries have waiting list in the hundreds. We see no way to get them in electronically to save waiting. The service we are talking to will permit multiple downloads for 2 weeks and permit renewals, so all members of a reading club could all check the book out at the same time. Please remember that until Cleveland incorporates, there are no tax dollars for a local library, so all the costs must be covered by local fundraising, donations, memberships, and overdues. Just the labeling and housing of the 180,000 books we have runs $40-50,000 annually. Some of that includes the cost of the Internet service, computers, FAX, copier, scanners, and printers. We use all volunteers, eliminating one of the highest budget items for libraries, which is staff salaries and benefits.
