Koningsdam Library update

We just completed the smoothest Trans Atlantic crossing from Rome to Fort Lauderdale that our Cruise director Carson has ever done. Sea was 3.5 ft and only 2 days of inclement weather

Carson stated during a Q&A that HAL was losing thousands of dollars annually in the 14 ships libraries and it has to stop

Books were not returned and others had torn pages or food stains and had to be replaced. Any HAL supplied travel books went MIA

Although the word is books are on route no one would say when, even Carson

Please continue to bring books as the turn over on finished books of all languages was stupendous

The same goes for magazines. The little space and the few shelves were visited a lot

HAL is forgetting the demographics that pay the way, us seniors and library fans

Book Bobby

We do understand that many folks love to have a real book in their hands (DW is reading one at this moment). However, times have changed and we are in the era of various electronic reading devices. As much as DW and I still love libraries and real books, we now love our Kindle Paperwhite's even more :). I can store over 1000 books on my Kindle and it weighs less then a single paperback. And that Kindle works perfectly in direct sunlight or in a dark room,,,,doesn't curl up if it gets hit with a drop of water, etc. Many others prefer to use various tablets, Smartphones, etc. And there are 10s of thousands of books available for electronic devices...and many of these are free (Project Gutenberg) or can easily be hacked (for those that are hackers). And most public libraries now have electronic books available for download at no charge.

I am afraid that those that miss libraries on ships are going to join the smokers that miss smoking in their cabins (and on their verandas). That is to say they will just be unhappy cruisers.

Hank

After the Oosterdam's recent (2016) dry-dock, the ship went illiterate.. Books gone no librarian. While e-books are fine for fiction, you want to read history or any book where you need to see the references, etc., maps a real book is much more satisfying. I don't think that real books ie paper will die even a slow death.

We just completed the smoothest Trans Atlantic crossing from Rome to Fort Lauderdale that our Cruise director Carson has ever done. Sea was 3.5 ft and only 2 days of inclement weather

Carson stated during a Q&A that HAL was losing thousands of dollars annually in the 14 ships libraries and it has to stop

Books were not returned and others had torn pages or food stains and had to be replaced. Any HAL supplied travel books went MIA

Although the word is books are on route no one would say when, even Carson

Please continue to bring books as the turn over on finished books of all languages was stupendous

The same goes for magazines. The little space and the few shelves were visited a lot

HAL is forgetting the demographics that pay the way, us seniors and library fans

Book Bobby

This is why cruise directors are worthless, this is the biggest nonsense I have ever heard, people do not destroy books, having done 60 plus cruises every library was always well stocked, books in great shape, and librarians never complained about the condition of the reading material....

DH and I still love to read real books.

I don't believe all that nonsense about missing tons of books and their being ruined.

No Kindles or Nooks, etc. for us.

As I posted originally paper page fans are still in abundance on the Kdam. A pocket book left on the shelf was gone within the hour. Magazines were gone even faster!!

As for Carson's remarks I too was shocked at what he professed.

A successful business must cater to its clients or they will move elsewhere.

Kindle users are hoarders in a sense and how many of them read the same book twice that is on their device.

Please bring your old books for the book drop area. You will not see it again as most of the 2900 people were starved for the written word

Library fan Bob

Sad but true, it sounds like ships library's will go the way of the dodo bird. We also love to read real books, at home I have a book self 14 ft in length, floor to ceiling full of hard cover books which I add to on a monthly bases. Once it gets too full I take old ones to the local library. It sounds like us book lovers are fighting an up hill battle, time will tell.

Allan

Thank you for the report, OP.

I don't doubt your report at all, but I find it astounding (and hard to believe) that HAL is losing $1,000's on the libraries.

I wonder if the thousands of dollars was also including the salary for the librarian (which has now been eliminated).?

IF Hal is too tight to stock a proper library then at least maybe they can expand the shelf space for take one leave one...i suspect that within a few months it will be overflowing with donated paperbacks....if they are too tight to pay to add more shelf space i will bring hammer/nails and some boards and do it for them.

We just completed the smoothest Trans Atlantic crossing from Rome to Fort Lauderdale that our Cruise director Carson has ever done. Sea was 3.5 ft and only 2 days of inclement weather

Carson stated during a Q&A that HAL was losing thousands of dollars annually in the 14 ships libraries and it has to stop

Books were not returned and others had torn pages or food stains and had to be replaced. Any HAL supplied travel books went MIA

And just how long has this CD been around HAL? I know I've never heard of him. Is he in a position to know what he's saying, or is he just believing what Seattle has told him? We all know how reliable Seattle's information is.

While not as complete as the former HAL libraries, some Princess ships still have respectable libraries. The Crown Princess has quite a large library and a separate room to house it.

I can only repeat what I wrote some time ago: Cunard ships still have wonderful libraries AND a librarian.... ( even if we personally don't like their dress-up "police" - "You do know, Sir, that gentlemen are required to wear a jacket after 6 p.m! " ( to DH in the bookshop at 6.10 p.m. on Queen Elizabeth" :cool:...

On Prinsendam this summer and autumn we also noticed some wear and tear on the books offered in the library and to be honest I preferred my Kindle because of that . But there were loads of book in the "bring-one - take one" section and that was appreciated by many.

It is hard to believe that HAL is losing "thousands" on the libraries (unless you include the librarian's salary - who also has other duties). We have left our books when we finished them (ones we brought onboard) and especially do so when they involve ports or other cruising issues.

If it's the same Carson that we know, he has been around for several years. He is very nice and does a good job, but like many CD's he says what pops into his head at the moment.

On the K Dam inaugural we were told that the reason there were no books, was that that had all been stolen from the dock, while loading the ship. They must be still looking for them.

Sandra

I can't imagine relying upon a ship's library for reading material. No doubt I would find almost nothing there that I would won't to read. It's so much easier to load up a kindle, etc. Then I know I will have what I want to read, not something that someone else thinks I might like. BTW, I will probably read close to a 1000 pages in seven days.

And just how long has this CD been around HAL? I know I've never heard of him. Is he in a position to know what he's saying, or is he just believing what Seattle has told him? We all know how reliable Seattle's information is.

Carson? Wasn’t his last gig as a Butler?:halo:

If it's the same Carson that we know, he has been around for several years.

OK, thanks. Nice to know. Funny how his name has never come up in conversation, or mentioned on this board.

I understand the point about history and seeing the references. But honestly, I don't think people do that type of research and reading on a cruise. I for one, will never use a paper map again. I don't think paper books will die, but I truly don't understand the beating of the breast about a cruise ship not having a library. I am an avid reader. But I would never expect a cruise ship to maintain a library. My kindle is with me wherever I travel. I do not normally spend a dime on these books as I check out books through my local library to read on my device. And by the way, I have many online guidebooks downloaded to my kindle. They are not just for fiction. I hope you all enjoy your next cruise and get to read as much as you like. I know I will with my trusty Kindle by my side.

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I understand the point about history and seeing the references. But honestly, I don't think people do that type of research and reading on a cruise. I for one, will never use a paper map again. I don't think paper books will die, but I truly don't understand the beating of the breast about a cruise ship not having a library. I am an avid reader. But I would never expect a cruise ship to maintain a library. My kindle is with me wherever I travel. I do not normally spend a dime on these books as I check out books through my local library to read on my device. And by the way, I have many online guidebooks downloaded to my kindle. They are not just for fiction. I hope you all enjoy your next cruise and get to read as much as you like. I know I will with my trusty Kindle by my side.

 

 

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I have books on my ipad aka I books. Guess what? I only read them on the plane.

I don't really like the way it goes and I still prefer holding a book in my hands.

I always bring a few paper backs and donate them when I leave.

The first thing I do on board is to head to the library and find a couple of books. If you have the benefit to be on a ship where there is a library you may understand. And, if you are totally happy with your kindle, you may not.

I am fortunately still sailing HAL ships that do have libraries and I do enjoy them.

If I find nothing (but so far I haven't) I have my Ibooks. but, for me still as advanced as I may be in technology, I'll take a book I can hold in my hands any day of the week.

Different strokes :)

I am a "browser" in choosing the books that I borrow from the public library and a ship's library. I like to read the flyleaf and a little about the author before choosing. I have not a clue on how to do that with an electronic reader which I have no desire to have. We are all different in our choices of how to read and I think HAL is wrong in eliminating libraries on their ships. Having recently sailed on Celebrity and Princess, I found their libraries to be adequate although smaller than they used to be.

I do not buy what the CD said -I think he is spouting the company line. My major complaint with HAL's ship libraries is the age of the books they have- it is obvious HAL has not bought any new titles in years.

We disembarked the Eurodam earlier this week, following a 17 day loop to Hawaii. The first thing we did when we dropped our carry-on bags in our stateroom was to go to the library and see what titles we could find to augment what was already on our e-reader (with 10 sea days, there was much opportunity for reading!). We were on the Eurodam in spring 2016, when there was still a librarian on board, and were shocked at how much the library had declined in the intervening time- there were less than half the titles there were 18 months ago. I am interested in a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction subjects and could not find a single book that interested me. After several unsuccessful trips back to scour the shelves again, I gave up. I looked around the pool several days and while there were numerous e-readers, there were just as many physical books, none of which looked to be from the library.

I can see how on one-week cruises with one or two sea days, there is little reason to keep a library open. However, for longer cruises with more sea days, the library is something I would like to be able to use. Based on what I saw this month, Eurodam's library needs some attention.

The library was one of several visible cutbacks I noticed on the ship and while I understand the reasons for such things in theory, it was still disappointing.

Interesting to read comments about how Kindles and other readers are replacing print books. I just ran into a situation with my Kindle that is very annoying. The book is a best-seller mystery and I Iooked forward to reading it. The problem is that one of the intriguing aspects of the book is that some of the information is relayed by using supposed copies of newspaper articles, receipts, timetables, tickets, etc. In a print book, I assume that each of these will occupy a page, as they do on the Kindle. The problem is that those pages produced on the reader occupy only a tiny portion of the page and the print is so small as to be unreadable. I can change the typeface size for the normal pages of the book but there is no way to increase the size of those special pages which, of course, contain clues and advance the story line. Good thing it was a download from the library. If I had bought the book I would demand my money back.

Holland America has become a value line, offering cheap cruises and an inexpensive way to see the world. If you want more amenities you need to move up. Cruise lines are like hotels and restaurants, we’ve had to move up to more expensive brands to get a better product.

I had to laugh at the previous comment that HAL hasn’t bought new book titles in years. So true.

Interesting to read comments about how Kindles and other readers are replacing print books. I just ran into a situation with my Kindle that is very annoying. The book is a best-seller mystery and I Iooked forward to reading it. The problem is that one of the intriguing aspects of the book is that some of the information is relayed by using supposed copies of newspaper articles, receipts, timetables, tickets, etc. In a print book, I assume that each of these will occupy a page, as they do on the Kindle. The problem is that those pages produced on the reader occupy only a tiny portion of the page and the print is so small as to be unreadable. I can change the typeface size for the normal pages of the book but there is no way to increase the size of those special pages which, of course, contain clues and advance the story line. Good thing it was a download from the library. If I had bought the book I would demand my money back.

Probably the format is not right try this https://calibre-ebook.com/ Some times formatting is off or not correct this will fix those problems,.

Holland America has become a value line, offering cheap cruises and an inexpensive way to see the world. If you want more amenities you need to move up. Cruise lines are like hotels and restaurants, we’ve had to move up to more expensive brands to get a better product.

I had to laugh at the previous comment that HAL hasn’t bought new book titles in years. So true.

You are right . We do high luxury and mass market BIG difference. If you look at what you are paying for mass market theses days and look back a few years has the price gone up , We cruised in 2015 on Holland 10 days Caribbean and going in Nov 10 day Caribbean almost same price ,