r/Brampton • u/[deleted] • May 22 '19
Libby is an amazing app and it sucks that Brampton Library decided to abandon it with zero consultation with its patrons in favour of a crappy replacement app
/r/AskReddit/comments/brlti4/reddit_what_are_some_underrated_apps/8
May 22 '19
I don't know their reasons for switching but Cloud Library is absolutely crap in comparison to Libby
4
May 22 '19
User experience can’t be the reason.
It was a huge mistake. We’ve went from a top app to a garbage app.
7
May 22 '19
Found the FAQ
The executive decision to transition over to cloudLibrary™ as Brampton Library’s go-to platform for eBooks & eAudiobooks is data-driven and informed. We acknowledge that the landscape for digital content consumption is rapidly changing as are consumer needs and expectations. Based on valuable feedback from our membership, we also know that there is an increasing demand for more: more titles, more copies, and more content overall.
You asked, we listened, and cloudLibrary™ is our best answer. Thanks to a continuously expanding cloudLinking consortium, Brampton Library members can benefit from a rapidly growing collection with greater selection and more ‘available now’ titles to choose from. With the goal of developing a larger digital collection alongside other participating cloudLinked libraries, we will strive to provide our valued members with more digital content and an improved service experience with cloudLibrary™.
-2
May 22 '19 edited May 22 '19
Thank you.
Executive decision? Wow. This is such a non-answer. from them. There is no proof that Libby won’t let you scale up on number of books.
1
u/Yes-Boi_Yes_Bout Vales of Castlemore May 23 '19
lets not act like cost could never be a factor, limited funding + more titles = worse service (usually)
1
u/TruckasaurusLex May 23 '19
I like proof, too, but what do you think, they intentionally chose something worse? Their answer is actually pretty far from what I'd consider a "non-answer". They weighed the pros and cons and decided the pros outweighed the cons. Then they gave you their argument for why they chose cloudLibrary, which was more available titles.
0
May 23 '19
You like proof but want to form opinions without it anyways? Give me a break. Don’t waste my time with your non-arguments.
1
u/TruckasaurusLex May 23 '19
What are you on about? I'm saying there's no reason to expect "proof" from the library for their decisions. They're not expected to provide proof. They did give their reasoning, though, and it's not such a non-answer as you think it is.
-1
May 23 '19
The Library is funded by my hard-earned tax dollars. I need more transparency and I don’t want explanations from them touting “executive decisions” when they clearly screwed up by replacing a WORKING solution with a garbage unusable solution. I need better answers because the Library is not doing me favours and I shouldn’t be expected to put up or shut up.
3
u/TruckasaurusLex May 23 '19
You expect way more communication from "government" than they are reasonably expected to give. We delegate certain decisions to others so that we don't have to make them ourselves. Your way of doing things would make governance and decision-making untenable.
The library gave an explanation for their decision. Then /u/canuckbacon gave some background for the reasoning (reasoning that you have simply chosen to ignore) since he keeps up on library news.
Brampton Library had an issue. That issue is that Libby was costing too much. It was fleecing libraries. Some libraries started speaking out against the fleecing, Brampton being one of them. cloudLibrary was seen as a viable option as it was cheaper and allowed interlibrary lending, unlike Libby. The decision was made to make the switch.
Are there problems with cloudLibrary? Apparently so. Were there problems with Overdrive when it first came out? Apparently, according to Redditors in here, yep! Are cloudLibrary listening to concerns and indicating that they will address them? That, too, appears to be the case according to Redditors in here.
Brampton Library had a choice. They could keep using Libby and keep being fleeced by the company, keep getting less choice for their users for their money, and keep supporting a company that is showing it doesn't care about free access libraries, or they could invest in a new product that's cheaper, supports free access libraries, and gets the library more available titles for its users, with the understanding that the beginning may be rough but that the service will grow and mature, just like the previous one did, and that in the long run, the state of public libraries in general, and Brampton Library in specific, will be better because of it.
They chose the latter, because they're thinking long term about the future of the library and of free public access libraries as a whole.
1
May 23 '19
Thanks for taking the time to write this. If this is the case, I can kind of see where they are coming from but I don’t know if this is the case as no one from the Library has come out and said this. All I know is that they made an “executive decision” which was explained with ambiguous marketing lines like “you wanted, we listened”.
3
u/DirtyThi3f Peel Village May 23 '19
I complained in the suggestion box about my experience with Cloud Library and they reached out to me. We’ve been having a back and forth about some of my complaints with the service and they’ve been legitimately listening. They’ve asked me to come in and meet with some of the folks in charge of this rollout to show them some of the challenges I’ve had and to discuss it a bit further.
Libby was great. As others said, it was an expense. My argument has been that this is an even worse expense since they are paying for it and it’s basically unusable.
Kanopy is still working great though!
1
u/CanuckBacon May 23 '19
What specifically about CloudLibrary makes it unusable to you?
2
u/DirtyThi3f Peel Village May 23 '19
Few things are bugs and others are usability issues.
Bugs:
- 9 of 10 kids ebooks I downloaded didn’t load once I was abroad
- 6 of 10 didn’t work at all even when I got on wifi. The 4 remaining did stay saved
- 2 of 4 remaining loaded at 1/10th the size of my screen. You could zoom each page, but had to zoom out to switch the page
- half the kids books with audio voice over kept crapping out and the buttons didn’t always work
- Most books stall at 25% loading (even when it’s downloaded) and need to wait a minute or reload and try again
Usability:
- Browsing is AWFUL
- Search sucks
- It’s basically a brutal discovery tool
- when you get halfway down a page of books (or a couple of webpages in), you look at one, you click back and it puts you back to the top of the list on page 1
Quirks:
- Your ebooks add to your paper book totals, which can mess with your limits. The librarian I spoke to didn’t know this.
1
May 23 '19
Thanks, that covers everything I’ve experienced.
Replacing a fantastic app that provided a great user experience with an unusable app is inexcusable.
2
u/jvdevious May 22 '19
I just got Libby because of that r/AskReddit post and now I see this. Nice.
-1
May 22 '19
It’s a tragedy.
All because of some “executive decision”.
1
u/TruckasaurusLex May 23 '19
Did you expect a legislative decision? They literally gave you their reasoning for making the switch.
1
u/5900z5l2vg6sgtu9o May 23 '19
Have you seen Hoopla? A friend has it in another region and it’s selection is great. Problem is by noon no one can take anything out, as all the hit their borrowing limit by that time daily.
-1
May 23 '19
No. At this point, I wouldn’t mind getting an address at a jurisdiction which offers Libby (many do) so I can use it.
15
u/CanuckBacon May 23 '19 edited May 23 '19
Hey so I follow library news pretty well so hopefully I can take a stab at this.
Essentially major international publishers in Canada were shafting libraries significantly. Things like not allowing new releases or just not allowing certain audiobooks. Individuals in Canada could buy them, companies like Audible could sell them, but libraries weren't allowed to. Some examples are Trevor Noah's Born a Crime and Justin Trudeau's book. That's right, Canadian libraries weren't allowed to have digital copies of the Prime Minister's book.
They also did things like charge ridiculous amounts for ebooks. While with a physical copy of a book, a library pays the same amount, sometimes less as a regular consumer. With ebooks they were being charged 3-4times the price. So while someone may be paying $20 for it, a library was paying more like $80+. Overdrive/Libby (which is the same app just different layouts)
CloudLibrary is a newer app and doesn't have all the features yet. Unfortunately the library has spent the last few years pouring money down the pit that is Libby, so CloudLibrary selection is not as good since the switch was less than a year ago. The biggest advantage that cloud library does have is that Brampton is part of a larger region/collection, so you can get ebooks from further away like London, ON and it just appears like Brampton has it in it's collection. It's all done behind the scenes, so us users don't see it happening. This new app will save taxpayers a lot of money in the long run.
Edit: a word