Libraries Turn To Amazon Wishlists For Help
from the begging-goes-online dept
For all the stories recently about “cyberbegging”, who knew that public libraries would resort to the same tactic? Facing drastic budget cuts, libraries are starting to put up their own “Amazon wishlists”, and people are coming through – buying them the books they need to stock their shelves. While the recipients are happy, some are worried that this will only allow governments to cut back public library funding even more. There is also the question of how long-term a solution this is. Right now, my guess is that they’re getting a lot of donations due to the novelty of donating a book via Amazon (and the attention it generates). When every library has such a list, it may be harder to get the same donations.
Comments on “Libraries Turn To Amazon Wishlists For Help”
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One feature which Amazon has yet to offer for the wishlists was a way for the “wish” to be hidden or marked off, once the wish has been granted by a gift purchase. If ten people see that my neighborhood library wants a copy of book X, then they’ll get to ten copies of book X (and no copies of desired book Y). Or the inverse will happen: nobody will buy a book X, figuring someone else probably will. Good Bridal Registries whittle down their wish lists as folks fulfill the list. Amazon should, too.