Миранда Джеймс - No Cats Allowed

Still, over a quarter of a million dollars to license e-books seemed exorbitant to me. I wondered how much new content the library had access to each year. Surely the collection grew over time. It would have to, in order to justify that kind of pricing.

Again, having Cassandra on hand to answer questions would be enormously helpful. She ought to be able to tell me how many e-books were in this collection.

The library cataloged all the e-books, I suddenly remembered. I ought to be able to search the online catalog and get at least a rough count of them. But would I be able to winnow out the e-books from other collections and databases?

One way to find out. I navigated on the Web to the library website and entered Global Electronic Resources enclosed in quotation marks in the search box for the online catalog. I knew it was the practice for many catalogers to include the e-book provider’s name as part of the bibliographic record, so I should get some kind of number. I hit Enter and waited.

The results consisted of one hundred and sixty-three titles. I scanned through several screens of them. All appeared to be math, computer science, and engineering books. Those tended to be expensive, I knew, but for the amount of money there ought to be a lot more. I did a quick calculation, and we were spending over sixteen hundred dollars per book, if those were all the titles. There had to be more.

Since Cassandra was unavailable, I decided to ask Delbert if he had a list of titles from this company. There had to be one somewhere, and since his department had to catalog them, surely he had a list.

I looked up his number and called him. He answered right away. I explained what I wanted, although not why. “If you could scan it and e-mail it to me, I’d appreciate it.”

He didn’t answer right away, and I was beginning to get irritated. Then, all in a rush, he said, “Sorry, but I don’t have one, you’ll have to get it from Cassandra.”

“That is a problem,” I said, my tone barely polite. “Because Cassandra is out, I can’t get hold of her. I need that list ASAP.”

“Um, well, I’ll see what I can do. Maybe she has a list somewhere in her files.”

“Please look. You have my authorization to look in her office. Ms. Hall will give you the keys to her files.”

“I don’t know how long it might take,” he said.

“I hope it won’t take too long,” I replied. “If necessary, I will contact the company and get it from them.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll do my best.” He hung up.

What was that all about? The man sounded worried.

After a moment’s reflection, I decided I had better try to contact the company. I suspected it might be faster and easier to get the list from them.

Except that no one answered their phone.

THIRTY-TWO

I double-checked the number on GER’s website and dialed again. Still no answer. Definitely odd . I looked up the area code and discovered it was a New Jersey number.

I went back on the library’s online catalog to have a more thorough look at those expensive e-books. Our default sort in the catalog was by descending publishing date, so the most recent books were listed first.

I blinked and peered at the screen. The first title in the result list had a publication date of twenty-three years ago. Surely that couldn’t be right. I checked the sort, but they had been sorted properly.

After going through every screen of the list, I reached the end. The last title was a math book published in 1899. I clicked on the link for the book and was taken, after nearly thirty seconds, to a screen that informed me, “Resource locked by user.” Then the helpful words “Please try again later.”

These e-books must be on a single-user license, and that meant only one person could use them at a time. I was curious why someone would be interested in a nineteenth-century math book, but research interests varied greatly.

I clicked at random on the link for another e-book and, after a similar wait, ended up at the same screen. My curiosity thoroughly piqued, I started at the end of the list and worked backward, checking access to every fourth title in the list.

Twenty minutes—and an even achier head, with sore neck and shoulders—later I had worked my way to the beginning of the list. Every single e-book I had tried to access was “locked by user.”

I recalled that the ten-year-history spreadsheet included columns for cost-per-use for resources each fiscal year. I went back to it, found the line for GER, and scanned across from present to earlier fiscal years.

After I’d finished, I rubbed my eyes. Usage for these e-books started high ten years ago and increased every year, even as their cost increased. The cost-per-use varied from a high of two dollars and eighty-six cents to a low of twenty-seven cents per use.

That was phenomenal usage, I realized after I did some quick calculations. That would account for the resources being constantly locked.

But it was also suspicious, at least to me. I looked through the spreadsheet and examined the cost-per-use of other resources. None seemed to be as good or as consistent, except for the major journal collections.

A tap on my door pulled me out of my ruminations. I blinked and turned to see Melba standing a few feet away.

“You were so deep into whatever you were looking at I thought you were in a trance,” she said. “What is so fascinating?”

“Budget figures,” I said in a light tone. I wasn’t ready to share my suspicions with anyone else. I wanted to make sure I had evidence of some kind before I said anything.

Melba grimaced. “They’d put me to sleep. Anyhow, that’s not why I knocked. I wanted to let you know it’s five o’clock, and I’m getting ready to leave. Will you be staying much longer? If you are, you may want to shut Diesel in here with you.” She glanced down at the feline rubbing against her legs. “He’s been with me most of the afternoon, but he’s also been out to visit the cop on duty by the front door. They’re buddies now.”

“I’ve lost track of the time completely.” I yawned suddenly. “Excuse me. No, I’m not going to stay. I need to clear my head for a while. Come on, Diesel, come to me and let Melba get going.”

The cat meowed and rubbed against her legs again, but then he ambled around the desk to my side. I scratched his head, and he warbled. “Thanks again for everything, Melba. I’d never get through this without you.”

She merely smiled and said good night before she turned and left the room.

“Okay, boy, give me a moment, and we’ll be on the way home soon.” I gave Diesel’s head one more scratch before I turned back to the computer. I shut down everything except e-mail. I checked to see whether Delbert Winston had sent me anything.

He hadn’t. Perhaps he was having trouble finding what I wanted.

Perhaps he doesn’t want to find it .

“Maybe he doesn’t,” I said. “But until I have a better picture of what’s really going on here, I don’t know.”

Diesel meowed, and I realized he thought I was talking to him. I laughed and logged off the network. It took me a moment to gather my things, and I made sure I had the canvas bag of files with me when we left the office and locked the door.

I closed and locked Melba’s door in turn, and while I did so, Diesel went to bid his new buddy good night. I chatted with the young man for a moment, and then I headed for the car with Diesel.

Azalea had gone by the time we reached home, but she left dinner for Stewart, Haskell, and me. Stewart had the table set, and we ate about thirty minutes later.

I was poor company during the meal because my thoughts kept straying to the issue of Global Electronic Resources. I foresaw a long evening ahead, because I knew I would not be able to go to bed until I had some kind of answer, or at least a glimmer of one.