Amazon and the limits of the book brand: Library Unlimited

摘要

Libraries are about much more than books. This simple truth bears repeating in light of the response to Amazon's July announcement of the Kindle Unlimited ebook subscription service and the all too many reductive and ill-informed reactions that followed. The offering is an "all you can read" service which promises unlimited access, via a Kindle app, to some 600,000 ebooks and 2,000 audiobooks for the low, low price of $9.99 each month. Librarians, alert to the need for libraries to be responsive to shifting consumer expectations, discussed the implications for libraries. Would this be another wedge, as infoDOCKET's Gary Price, for one, asked (ow.ly/zA4SF), between the burgeoning e-reader and libraries?