The thing about anti-libby posts, because ebooks have to be paid for yearly while physical books only have to be paid for once, is that yes, physical books are cheaper for the library to acquire- but the library has a budget they chose to allocate, whether it's on software, subscriptions to digital encyclopedias, or ebook rentals. If they chose to rent ebooks, it was because they want you to read them, and using any of their services looks good for them. Check out physical books by all means, but don't feel guilty about checking out ebooks.
Think of it as an accessibility measure.
"But wait," you say. "They're books. Physical objects. In a building. You don't have to pay to get into the building, or get the books. What do you need accessibility for? They're already accessible?"
Not if you've been hospitalized.
Not if you have poor vision. (Ebooks: Adjustible font sizes for EVERYTHING. Not just the large print editions the library can get.)
Not if the roads are covered in ice, or the library itself is for whatever reason closed/hard to get to.
And the audiobooks! Do you have any idea how many people have cars that don't have CD players, or don't know if they have MP3-CD-compatible CD players, or really don't want to try wrangling an 8-CD-book while driving? THERE ARE A LOT, LEMME TELL YOU. But with Libby, all you need is a bluetooth connection between your phone and your car!
And you can even listen to a whole audiobook on your phone while unable to see because eye surgery! (don't even try to ask if that's common. It's way common. I've had multiple calls re: walking people through setting this up for this reason just this year. Actually, even just this summer. Bad year for eyeballs, good year for Libby.)
Extra bonus points: You don't have to worry about returning materials on time, because Libby handles that for you. Which is great if you're traveling. It's also great because you can even check out more stuff while you're physically in completely different states from your library!
Oh and one other thing. Do you have any idea how much shelf space, say, "every single James Patterson book" or "every single Danielle Steel book" would actually take up? How many entire physical book cases those authors would take up, if a library chose to have every. single. book. they've ever written? Yeah. It's not happening. (Okay. The Library of Congress probably has it. Good luck finding any other library doing it.) But we can get them all in ebook format. Yep. Every last one. And the audiobook version. These two and every other insanely prolific writer out there. Virtual space is infinitely expandable. Aren't you glad?
Your library pays some hefty fees to make these ebooks available to you. These are just some of the reasons. So please. Use the feature. We want you to use the feature.
GUYS GO GET A LIBRARY CARD AND GET LIBBY IM BEGGING
