Libraries Emailing Book Chapters

from the great-idea... dept

Here's a great idea that shows how some libraries are adapting to an internet world. A group of libraries have signed up for a service where patrons are emailed a chapter of a different book every day. They can read the chapter, and if they find it interesting, they can check the book out of the library, or even buy it directly. They can also go to the library website and discuss the excerpt with others. People seem to really like it. It pushes them to read more, while introducing them to new books they might never have heard of otherwise. What's interesting to me, though, is no one seems to raise the issue of copyrights. The service that provides this actually hires "stay-at-home moms" to type up the chapters and send them out. This sounds like the type of thing that short-sighted publishers would freak out about. Either this means they haven't realized that this is happening or (could it be?) they actually realize that this sort of service is helping them to generate interest in new books and to sell more books. Update: The site itself makes clear that the excerpts are all done with permission of the publishers. That's good. It still makes me wonder why they would need someone to type them up, then. Shouldn't the publishers have digital files of the book?