For various good reasons, the Westchester Library System (WLS) terminated its relationship with Total Boox back in early April, 2019. There was still money in the kitty, however, and those patrons who were able to use the service could continue to do so until the end of June. Apparently, though, the money has now run out, so we have removed the service from our web site.
Q – So what were the “good reasons” WLS had for terminating Total Boox?
A – Basically the service had a lot of little problems. For example, some patrons could never use it. Some patrons could only use it if they put a space after their barcode. The app was removed from the App store. And so on. WLS attempted to resolve these issues, but Total Boox stopped responding. Enough was enough, eventually, and WLS ended its relationship with the company.
Q – Total Boox always worked for me. How come I can’t continue to get access to the books I have already downloaded? I thought we had them forever.
A – Total Boox kept track the pages of a book the patron read and then deducted a set amount per page from a fund WLS paid Total Boox. If a patron downloaded a book, but then didn’t read a page of it, WLS wouldn’t be charged a penny. If a patron downloaded a 700 page book, but only read the first 10 pages, that’s all WLS would pay for. So long as there was money in the fund, patrons who were able to use Total Boox (remember a lot of patrons couldn’t use the service for some reason) could continue to do so. Now the money has run out. We had no way of knowing when that would happen.