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At the risk of sounding out of touch - I think public libraries should get out of lending e-books altogether. Instead use that money to buy more paperbacks and physical books. It's never been easier to search for a book, place a hold on a book using the libraries' websites.

If more people start showing up in the libraries and use them - they'll continue to flourish. If they become a Netflix for books - they're not going to survive.

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The mission of libraries is generally to increase access to works, not reduce. Your plan would hit the group who needs it most - the working poor who don’t have the means / time to go to a physical library.

Citation needed.

I highly doubt that the working poor are the ones doing most of the e-book borrowing.

I made no such claim.

That might be true but unless there is significant regulatory/policy overhaul what is currently happening is a systematic public funds transfer to Private Equity. If this continues - there won't be too many public libraries around.

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