Which doesn't imply that more aren't needed or possible.
Why couldn't overdrive simply cut a deal where a group of people (a school, a county, a company with benefits) is allowed to 'check out' a copy. Archive.org has that sort of concept for individuals of course (for free). I don't see any value added by getting the library involved (which are mostly just free internet, warming/cooling centers and bathrooms for the homeless, a source of self-help books and romance novels for a tiny section of an ageing population).
To be fair, the feature creep in public libraries is important to keep the iron rice bowl full. It would be more honest to put together a local 'activity center' that happens to have a few books.
>> Why couldn't overdrive simply cut a deal where a group of people (a school, a county, a company with benefits) is allowed to 'check out' a copy.
That is literally what they did. In the US, most public libraries are at the county level (though some at the township level or city level (e.g NYPL).) The library is serving to validate residency in the county and to segment county funding from tax dollars to the private service. The rest of the service is between the end reader and Overdrive. Even the catalog appears to be a whitelabel service atop Overdrive's APIs. The Library checked-out list likely reflects an API call on Overdrive -- there is no way a county library has the sophistication to build this out.
Similarly, my employer used to pay for the OReilly Safari service which is very similar, except from corporate coffers.
Similarly, my University used to pay for a textbook service, this time from University coffers.
Which doesn't imply that more aren't needed or possible.
Why couldn't overdrive simply cut a deal where a group of people (a school, a county, a company with benefits) is allowed to 'check out' a copy. Archive.org has that sort of concept for individuals of course (for free). I don't see any value added by getting the library involved (which are mostly just free internet, warming/cooling centers and bathrooms for the homeless, a source of self-help books and romance novels for a tiny section of an ageing population).
To be fair, the feature creep in public libraries is important to keep the iron rice bowl full. It would be more honest to put together a local 'activity center' that happens to have a few books.