Forum - View topicNEWS: Kodansha Comics to Offer Manga eBooks in N. American Public Libraries
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malvarez1
Posts: 1658 |
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Wow, that's awesome! Makes things really convenient; my library system is missing so much stuff.
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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That's awesome! Won't really do much for me now, but as a kid I spent a good 2 hours in the library 2-3 times a week, just using their internet and reading manga they had or that I'd loaned from other libraries through them. Good times. The librarians all knew me by name back then and waived the check-out limit since they knew I came back so frequently and burned through manga so quickly xD A great free way for new fans to get introduced to stuff :3
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xScar
 Posts: 288 |
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Has anyone actually got this to work?
Tried searching through libraries for Mushishi (and then Attack on Titan since it's more popular), and I only get that's it's unavailable. |
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WashuTakahashi
Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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They said they WILL offer them, not that they're already available. It could be a few weeks before it's implimented |
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MangaNeko
Posts: 137 |
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I cannot wait to check this out. I recently found out the city one hour away from me has a nice manga and graphic novel section, plus ebooks. I will check out on Saturday if they use Overdrive.......oh please, please, I hope so. My pocketbook can only afford so much manga each week. Thanks to Christmas shopping I have been making the trip twice a week and keep exchanging my book limit every few days.
I am reading the AoT Collosal book, I was surprised to see it available. It has been checked out frequently and I hope they have book 2 on order. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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This is huge. My roommate's a librarian (I actually just called her at work to tell her the news), and people are always asking for manga ebooks. But because libraries use Overdrive, she's had to tell them that there's nothing she could do, unless the companies decide to go through Overdrive.
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WashuTakahashi
Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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If you have a library closer to you, there's a very good chance they can do inter-library loans. I used to use them all the time, and it should be a completely free service to use. Basically, all the libraries within X distance from each other go "You know what would be great? If our patrons could read your books and yours could read ours!" My library had a computer system where you could search books to check out from any library in their circle and they'd send them to your library free of charge. Sometimes they took a while to get in, but it's worth the wait! And this was like 5-10 years ago, I'm sure things are even better now. |
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xScar
Posts: 288 |
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I suppose so. The fact that they were already listed though made me think maybe I was just doing something wrong -- not that they weren't available for all. |
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MikeNeko San
Posts: 51 |
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I have a bad feeling that libraries "purchase" e-titles from OverDrive. I just used my local library's "ask a librarian a question" button to bring the press release to their attention, ask when and if the manga collection would be available to patrons, and what titles would be offered. If you'd like to see what's in collaboration's collection, I was able to pull up 410 titles (including Noragami volumes 1-8!) using keyword search Kodansha at www.overdrive.com
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vashthekaizoku
 Posts: 261 Location: The House of Rat |
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I love Overdrive! I read a lot of books on there, including all my Star Wars, Star Trek and Game of Thrones books. Adding to the collection is a great idea.
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wikjif
Posts: 1 |
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As someone who works in a library I can confirm that we do purchase copies of e-books. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13550 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Not surprisingly, Kodansha USA's best sellers are AoT and FT. The Kodansha USA press link says that FT has sold over 25 million copies.
I really wish Kodansha USA would do a Kickstarter to get all the Pastel chapters onto Crunchyroll or as e-books on CR or the Kodansha USA page. I really enjoy the series but it's so overlooked/disliked that even the scanlators have practically given up on it. That is, the monthly manga is perhaps at ch. 195 and the scans are only on ch. 138. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2418 Location: Germany |
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I am a trained librarian and i don´t get the linked story at all. Are they giving away a set amount of free ebooks licenses to selected libraries or what? That´s nothing special and all sorts of companies fund or give away content to libraries. A lot of libraries with comic section should already have at least physical copies of their works (we do) and young readers aren´t the crowd that use ebook lending. Will Kodansha receive money from Public Lending Rights and so on.
This is highly confusing from at least a German/EU prospective. |
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Dessa
Posts: 4438 |
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I don't know how libraries work in Germany/EU, but this story is specifically about NA libraries. In NA, libraries use a service called Overdrive for all of their ebooks. If it's not available through Overdrive, a library can't offer an ebook. Manga is very popular in libraries in the US, and a lot of people ask for ebook versions to check out, but, up until now, there has been little to none available on Overdrive. With this new partnership, a huge amount of manga will be available. Which is especially important, now that many companies are moving to Digital-Only/Digital-First, so many books are not available in print at all. |
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residentgrigo
Posts: 2418 Location: Germany |
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Book prices are set by the publisher and are protected in Germany by law so companies as Amazon can´t lower them if the books are in new condition. A 20 Euro book costs us 18 Euro to buy due to a library tax break of 10% and that is it. A license for an eBook (we can only lend out 1 copy at the same time if we only own one license) is deferent as there are no fixed prices and every part of the contract is negotiable which can be hell... It is very easy to acquire such though but kidZ aren´t the customer base at all. That goes double for pirates who can speak English.
This is obviously a marketing move by Kodansha which is fine and i can see the benefits 100% as libraries need everything they can get to survive but the publisher could make a lot of money if royalties form Public Lending Rights start rolling in over time. I couldn´t figure out tough how that system works in the US due to the less than helpful wiki article. |
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