Original Question, SDC Comments, (chronological order)

Original Question (8/27/10):

Edie Huffman (IN)

From a Library Director:

We have subscribed to a new service, Freegal, which allows downloads of songs. Each download/checkout is one song. We are wondering how to accurately record the statistics since a checkout of a CD would have multiple songs and this is only one song. Any advice?

Edie:

It looks to me as if it would be one circulation per song?  Any advice, suggestions, other opinions?  Thanks, Edie

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SDC Comments:

Susan Mark (WY)

That’d be my take on it.

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Rob Geiszler (VT)

Does this depend upon their cataloging?  If the individual songs are cataloged, I’d count the individual items.  If they’re not cataloged, I’d be inclined to count Freegal as a database. I kind of remember a discussion about this a couple of years ago with respect to downloadable audiobooks.

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John DeBacher (WI)

Personally, I don’t know what Freegal would count as. I look at it as akin to taking library funding and giving it away. It reminds me of those who suggested in years past that libraries should quit collecting books and should instead just let patrons select things from Amazon.

Here’s the LJ announcement on the Sony scheme:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6723898.html

and I just discovered some subsequent discussion (long link warning):

http://blog.libraryjournal.com/ljinsider/2010/07/19/the-debate-over-freegal-does-innovative-free-music-service-represent-the-downfall-of-the-library-lending-model/

I don’t see much that resembles circulation of library materials.

--The library does not own anything—it just buys bundles of downloads.

--The library does not select anything—the patrons have access to the entire Sony catalog.

--The library does not catalog anything—if it did, it would catalog all of Sony’s songs (have fun, technical services!).

--The library does not “circulate” anything (if you consider circulation in the “loan” sense of something being used by an individual and then subsequently available to another).

The patron selects a song, the library “buys” it for them, and the patron doesn’t give it back, nor does the use sunset. If another patron wants the same song, the library essentially “buys” it again. I wonder if the library can track use to the individual user. Perhaps so, since patrons are limited to 20 downloads per week. But that would be a critical factor.

I know many states and some of the state officers are anxious to count everything possible to justify library funding, but I think we need to look carefully at collecting and maintaining statistics that are useful and comparable in the long run.

I think mixing and counting “virtual” usage with traditional, physical circulation is a mistake and we should distinguish and segregate the two, just as we have distinguished e-books, and now downloadable audios and videos. Physical materials and physical circulations have different costs and bearings on the “library as place” than do virtual items. They require different staffing, storage, and space needs calculations. I do not disagree that we need to track and count use of virtual activities. But if we give them the same weight and bearing as we do services and activities in our libraries, we ultimately undermine the value of the library as “place” and risk bolstering the argument that physical outlets are no longer necessary.

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More on Freegal: http://plsc.pbworks.com/w/page/39012840/Freegal-(music-service)