Saturday, September 8, 2007

BookSwim vs the Ottawa Public Library

Did you ever want to rent a book? Well you can with the new site BookSwim. You choose the books you want to read on their web site, they ship books to you, keep the books for as long as you want, and you return books with pre-paid postage. All for $20 a month.

Um, did these guys ever hear of a public library? Let me compare and contrast the service offered by BookSwim to my local library, the Ottawa Public Library.









On-line interface?YesYes
Free shipping?YesNo, you have to pickup your books
Rental timeUnlimited3 to 12 weeks
Cost$20+Free


While BookSwim has a few advantages as it allows you to keep books for as long as you like I don't see why someone would want to pay $20 or more a month to get a service that your local library provides for free. My advice is to save your money and donate to your public library to make sure it gets the funding it needs.

1 comment:

Fortrel said...

My way of donating to the public library is to make sure I return my books a few days after the rental limit. When you rent 10 kid books, the late fees add up quickly. :-)