Taggart Aug 5, 2023
Well that sucks. The company behind Libby/Overdrive has been acquired by the same group that gutted Toys R Us: https://karawynn.substack.com/p/the-coming-enshittification-of-public-libraries

This is exceptionally bad news for libraries, which already strain against corpo nonsense to deliver digital materials.
The Coming Enshittification of Public Libraries

Global investment vampires have positioned themselves to suck our libraries dry

Nine Lives
Show threadLisa HamiltonAug 6, 2023
@mttaggart This news is making me hyperventilate. I need to go pace outside
Show threadTaggart Aug 6, 2023
@3x10to8mps I mean the acquisition happened in 2020 and the app still works. But it's concerning that such a critical service is in such predatory hands.
Show threadLisa Hamilton

@mttaggart The app does still work because there's still money for KKR to suck out. And some of the user friendly functionality is already limited. They are very well known among venture capitalist firms. I think the case of Toys R Us is very telling of their modus operandi

I don't see it happening soon, but another service needs to be developed to compete with Overdrive

Aug 6, 2023 at 3:47pmWeb