Libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

have been lending books to the public for thousands of years. First libraries date back to 2600 BC during

Sumerian civilization Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...

. In the modern era lending books largely happens by Public Libraries. Generally worldwide

public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamenta ...

are

non-profit organizations A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

offering book lending services free to their patrons and are generally funded through taxes and donations or by the state., Public libraries are accessible to general public and are run by civil servants, state employees, or volunteers. Some of the largest libraries in the world include Library of Congress in the United States of America and British Library with millions of titles in their catalogs. Besides the public libraries, private libraries also provide lending services, and are usually run by individuals, associations, or by corporate organizations and universities.

Private libraries A private library is a library that is privately owned. Private libraries are usually intended for the use of a small number of people, or even a single person. As with public libraries, some people use bookplates – stamps, stickers or ...

usually require a subscription or membership to the library (paid or unpaid) and provide services specific to the organization, area or university.

Book rentals

Historically before the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, books were too expensive for commoners to buy, and there were businesses which made profit by renting out books for a fee. ''

Kashi-hon is a Japanese phrase for books and magazines that are rented out. refers to the book rental service it was based on, also just simply called . began in Japan around c. 1630 because books were too expensive for common people to buy, and the ...

'' in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

was one of such businesses. In modern era in developing and developed nations, for-profit book rental services have started to lend physical

books A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical ar ...

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

CDs, e-books, and audiobook MP3s through stores and/or by an online (website) interface after popularization of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

. Most book rental companies provide books with doorstep delivery using logistic services. Following the popular

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

model for video rental, many book companies have applied features such as unlimited rentals, free shipping, and no late fees to their book distribution services.

Book rental models

Based on rental method

Based on the rental method the book rental companies can be categorized into two subgroups: # Book rental companies having a subscription-based models where a monthly or periodic subscription fee is charged and members can rent a number of books based on the subscription. # Book rental companies taking a fraction of book cost as rent. This is the most prevalent model in textbook and college book renting.

Based on type of book rented

Based on the type of books that the book rental service rents following classification can be done: # Physical or Printed Books. The category can further be subdivided into ## Companies focusing on fiction, non-fiction, and other non-academic books. ## Companies who primarily rent academic, reference, and educational publications. # E-book renters Many companies renting physical books also rent e-books. Since e-book rental distribution rights are totally different from physical books many smaller companies are not able to rent e-books from standard publishers like

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

Pearson Pearson may refer to: Organizations Education *Lester B. Pearson College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada *Pearson College (UK), London, owned by Pearson PLC *Lester B. Pearson High School (disambiguation) Companies *Pearson PLC, a UK-based int ...

Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari B ...

Cengage Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.(Jun 27, 2014Global Publishing Leaders ...

, etc due to the high licensing fees required for rental rights.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Book Rental Service Book promotion Reading (process) Book rental

Book rentals

Book rental models

Based on rental method

Based on type of book rented

See also

References