That's even more insanity. I could kind of understand if they were moving them to remote storage. They'd still be available, but you'd have to wait a bit to get access. Giving them away is crazy. Unless... maybe there is a historical museum which will be getting them?

There will have to be a librarian in charge of ordering them via whatever platform they are available on, then activating them, then managing access, at the very least. It's extremely improbable that they would create their own platform. That's just unfeasible. For e-books, there already is control over what you can access and that will continue. But, it is complicated in a lot of ways.

I haven't (yet) looked at the Vermont schools' current libraries to see what they're using right now. I'm assuming they will continue to use those same vendors and probably add more. It's not really outsourcing in the way that's usually understood, but yes, it does require working with outside vendors.

Hey, if I was having lunch with you, I could go on for hours about e-resources and libraries, but I'll refrain here. LOL.

As I keep reading this thread... are you me? LOL. Thank you so much for explaining all of this so clearly. Like I said, I'm not even in Vermont, but wanted to see what people were saying about this.

It looks like they're not laying off ALL of the librarians, at least. I hope they realize, though, that maintenance and support for those e-books (or other e-resources) is a LOT of work. I won't get into specifics, but basically, that's what I do. There's a ton of behind-the-scenes work that goes on to make these available and working.

They may find that they need to hire MORE librarians for this.

https://www.vermontlibraries.org/director-of-vermont-state-colleges-system-vscs-libraries-vermont-state-colleges-system-montpelier-vt

Right? (Academic librarian here, not from Vermont, just searched to see if this story was on reddit.) Our most used e-book vendors prevent you from printing more than a certain amount. A few do, but not the majority.

Plus, there are a LOT of books that simply aren't available digitally!

My library currently purchases a book as an e-book if it's available. Guess what? We still purchase a lot in print.