Yesterday I had a really depressing conversation with a student who was angry about the library’s provision of online texts. The student was understandably frustrated but the problems raised were not because of choices made by the library, but from online publishers.

I had to explain that these were not choices the library made but the only options we had- the student had thought limited user licences and read online only, with no download option, were library controlled. And of course, availability and cost.

Again the explanation that a kindle version being available doesn’t mean a library ebook is available and again that a reasonably priced retail ebook for an individual does not reflect the cost of the library ebook.

It was upsetting because my colleagues and I have been trying so hard to provide the best we can online for students during the pandemic. These were reasonable complaints but were things we try to work round and were not our decision.