There are lots of reasons platforms remove features, so I can’t confirm writer Karawynn Long’s conclusions about why lending service OverDrive nixed one of her favorite buttons. But it’s a good exploration of why the private equity-owned OverDrive’s concentrated power in the library ebook space feels so risky, especially as publishers are trying to definitively ban library-run alternatives:
[F]or libraries in a resource-sharing ‘consortium’ — which seems to be most small and mid-sized public libraries, as well as some large ones — the new system is functionally useless. It’s no longer clear which titles were requested by their own patrons, as opposed to the patrons of another library in the same consortium.
In order to get that information — which until May was freely available — each library now has to pay a separate fee for an “Advantage” account.
[karawynn.substack.com]
