http://waxingphilosophic.com/2007/03/26/brooklyn-public-libraries-partnering-with-netflix/ Culture, technology, psychology and other musings Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:00:03 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://waxingphilosophic.com/2007/03/26/brooklyn-public-libraries-partnering-with-netflix/comment-page-1/#comment-33 Ms. Anderson Thu, 29 Mar 2007 06:17:53 +0000 http://waxingphilosophic.com/?p=94#comment-33 On the surface this seems like a decent idea to me, especially as a Netflix subscriber who pays a monthly fee... who wouldn't like to save $12.99/mo? But in order for Netflix to buy into this (which the article notes, Netflix hasn't even heard of this deal), the Brooklyn Library will have to pay a significant fee in order to provide all willing Brooklynites with Library/Netflix subscriptions. As a taxpayer, I'm not sure if this is the best use of my federal and local dollars. I can see why it could be useful/community building for a library to be in the business of renting out dvds and cds in house, it's good to get foot traffic in local libraries. But this Netflix proposal seems to eliminate that piece from the picture. Sure there's benefits to making obscure/artsy/historical films available to the masses (which Netflix sort of does on a limited basis), but that doesn't seem like that's just what this is about. I hear there's an illiteracy problem in this country. Maybe funds could be better used for that tackling that rather than making sure every Brooklynite can have on demand access to Weekend at Bernie's. Maybe I'm cynical, or maybe I'm just prioritizing limited resources. On the surface this seems like a decent idea to me, especially as a Netflix subscriber who pays a monthly fee… who wouldn’t like to save $12.99/mo? But in order for Netflix to buy into this (which the article notes, Netflix hasn’t even heard of this deal), the Brooklyn Library will have to pay a significant fee in order to provide all willing Brooklynites with Library/Netflix subscriptions. As a taxpayer, I’m not sure if this is the best use of my federal and local dollars. I can see why it could be useful/community building for a library to be in the business of renting out dvds and cds in house, it’s good to get foot traffic in local libraries. But this Netflix proposal seems to eliminate that piece from the picture. Sure there’s benefits to making obscure/artsy/historical films available to the masses (which Netflix sort of does on a limited basis), but that doesn’t seem like that’s just what this is about. I hear there’s an illiteracy problem in this country. Maybe funds could be better used for that tackling that rather than making sure every Brooklynite can have on demand access to Weekend at Bernie’s. Maybe I’m cynical, or maybe I’m just prioritizing limited resources.

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