". . .purchase books only to read them once?
Because they could never
Rent them . . . until now!"And i suppose most consumers have never, ever heard of libraries (where you can, gasp, check out books, and many other materials for, practically {there is that pesky little matter of taxes in most cases, and in my case, quite often, overdue fines, but that is an other matter entirely...} free) . . .imagine that!
*a semi Public Service Announcement brought to you by your semi-friendly but ever-sarcastic Rampaging Librarian
4 comments:
We don't rent books at libraries, we borrow them. Renting implies a fee for usage, like renting a car or a movie. Also, consumers, by definition pay money in exchange for a good or service. A library can't have consumers because goods aren't purchased. This is why we call them "library patrons".
You may disagree, but I believe this whole book rental idea was made to offer people who generally purchase their books in stores/online because of libraries' long waiting lists, non-immediate selection, inconvenient hours, and/or inability to get to a library, an alternative to purchasing.
actually i'm not in any way disagreeing with the concept of renting books, i'm only finding humor in the advertisement.
And perhaps you have missed the fact that many libraries no longer call library customers patrons but in fact customers, and, yes in some cases consumers because in fact they are paying for services through their tax dollars (and if you go to the root of the word patron that is some one who is also paying for the very particular services of a very particular someone) and libraries have long struggled with the exact terminology of what to call those who chose to use their services (as well as how best to serve them, i.e. hours, selection, etc). I happen to live in a community that does that very well.
My post was meant as both sarcasm and to inform as of a new service.
But we all have our own opinions.
(although i absolute agree that this serves a need that may not be met, i often like things delivered to my house--and will often pay for the convinience--though our library does that too--it's called mail-a-book--and we will purchase or Intra-library-loan anything we don't have in the system--often things are a matter of awareness)
They took my book rental idea! Damn! I should have acted on that sooner.
don't you Hate it when that happens?
I would be so rich if only...
like a million times over...
Post a Comment