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August 8, 2006
Amazon library supply
This article caught my eye in America. Amazon are to offer a library supply service.
I wish someone would shake up the world of library management systems.
Amazon have a system which links titles to customers - which most book retailers don't have- maybe the Amazon system and software suppliers could come into the market Of course they have the biggest title database around. They could provide your "one library card, one catalogue" service.
Developments in the library world need to be supplier lead- not library profession lead and (preserve us) not government lead.
Call me up Mr Bezos. I might have saved your share price!
Posted by Perkins at August 8, 2006 8:57 AM
Comments
It`ll never catch on. The library suppliers will scream blue murder and the libraries will be deeply suspicious.. if it saves money there must be something wrong.
Posted by: SUSAN HILL at August 8, 2006 9:12 AM
Yes, Susan, you are right
I reckon it could save about £50m per annum in library operating costs and add about £20m to the purchasing power of the book fund
Library users could also buy instead of borrowing from within their library, if they wished. It would generate maybe another £50m income for libraries and £50m for Amazon- or whoever their competitors might be.
That comes to £170m per annum. Definitely an idea to be avoided. Especially if you put it alongside the other £250m savings I have suggested by simpler better focussed managment. It must not be spoken of.
Posted by: Tim Coates at August 8, 2006 9:36 AM
How about discounts demanded of publishers? Library suppliers want big discounts, but Amazon might want more. This might not matter so much to the big publisher, but discounting matters a great deal to small independent publishers like Berkshire. Anyone have a detailed breakdown of how the current system works, so we can follow the money and assess the effect overall of choosing Amazon over an existing supplier? Tim?
Posted by: Karen Christensen at August 8, 2006 9:37 PM