I will admit, I have been avoiding this topic in the
blog, but I suddenly feel compelled to address it here. The issue of publishing houses and how they
are threatening the livelihood of the borrowed ebook is an important
topic. It has come to the point where I
feel a certain responsibility as a Librarian to inform my faithful public of
the situation (as it will directly affect you in the long-run).
Background
I realize that most of you reading this may be completely
unaware of this situation, altogether. If
you are current on what’s going on, please indulge me as I take a trip into our
recent past for those who are not up to speed
;0) The basics are these:
A) Books are now being offered in a format that a person can
read on their computer, phone, ipad, or dedicated reading device (such as a
Kindle or NOOK). These are called
ebooks.
B) Libraries would like to offer books in this format to
their patrons for all the obvious reasons (to serve our patrons, provide access
to as many as we can, provide our patrons with as much choice as possible, and
promote reading).
C) Publishers are suddenly expressing various concerns about
providing their titles in this format to libraries.
D) Due to this concern on their part, they have begun to
incorporate some questionable practices into the selling and distributing of
their titles.
There are several major publishing houses in the United States:
Hachette Book Group, Brilliance Audio, MacMillan, Simon
& Schuster, Penguin Group, Random House, and HarperCollins.
There are a couple of large distribution companies who
contract with publishers and libraries to provide borrowing privileges of this
material to patrons. The one we use is
called Overdrive.
The Current Appalling Situation
As of now, all of the afore-mentioned publishers, except
Random House, have completely stopped selling ebooks to libraries. Random House has agreed to continue selling
ebooks to libraries, but at a MAJOR price increase. Penguin has even pulled books out of
electronic collections that had been purchased prior to their decision to no
longer sell to libraries. The depths of
this kind of activity could be plumbed for pages and pages. I will spare you the sordid details. The true reasons behind these decisions by
the publishers are still unclear, although there are blogs-a-plenty taking
guesses and hosting discussions (I will provide you with a list at the end of
this post, should you want to investigate this atrocity further).
I will summarize: One
publisher is still selling their ebooks to book sellers for the same price, but charging libraries up to 300% more
for their copies. Publishers who have
stopped selling to libraries and various library-supporting institutions are
trying to come up with new sales models to resolve this issue. Most of the models developed by publishers
seem to be dancing on the line of legality concerning anti-trust laws.
Penguin expressed a MAJOR upset with the agreement that
Overdrive struck with Amazon when they began library-lending operations for the
Kindle devices. Basically, when you
check out a book in “Kindle format” from your library through Overdrive, you
are immediately rerouted to Amazon.com to retrieve your library book. You MUST have an Amazon.com account to borrow
Kindle books from your library. This
concerns patron privacy and an assumed drumming up of business for Amazon.
It has been suggested by the publishers that in the future
OverDrive, and other companies like it, will need to be concerned with
individual libraries’ policies for issuing library cards (eg. Making sure that
they are considered under the “resident” category for lending). This concern stems from the fact that if a
person has somehow managed to maintain more than one active library card, they
may use a card issued in one location to check out electronic material at
another location (perhaps in an entirely different state, even).
Some of the models presented by publishers are offering a
“26 checkout” rule. This means that the
library pays for the rights to an electronic book. It becomes available for check out to the
public (one person at a time, just like a regular library book). Once the copy has been checked out 26 times,
the rights are retracted from the library.
In essence, the book is taken back by the publisher. The library no longer owns that copy. If the library wants to continue to own that
copy, they must purchase it all over again.
You can see the sort of impact these policies will have on the
already-strained budgets of libraries throughout the country.
Some models require that you (the patron) come to the
library, physically, to download and check out electronic copies of
titles. This means that even though you
have a computer, internet access, and your ereader right there at home with
you; you will have to drive to the library to logon, download and transfer the
book to your device. The publishers are
concerned that it is too easy for you
to check out electronic materials. The
natural “friction” that has been a part of the way the library has worked for
centuries now, ensures a certain amount of initiative to purchase from the
patrons.
I know this all may sound like a foreign language. I assure you, if you are interested in
reading more on this, the blogs I refer you to at the end of this post will
clarify ;0)
How This Affects YOU
1. No new titles
available in ebook format. This will
create longer wait lists for patrons on new titles.
2. A less diverse and
less current selection of materials for you in electronic format.
3. Libraries that are trying to maintain a workable
electronic collection under these circumstances will have to spend a
SIGNIFICANTLY larger part of their book budget on electronic materials, not
leaving as much for print books. This
means LESS BOOKS.
4. Not being able to
take advantage of the inherent convenience that your reading device naturally
offers you.
As A Librarian…
As a Librarian, I am deeply disturbed by this unrest between
the publishers and the libraries. It
saddens me greatly to feel the sting of the slap from an industry that should,
so logically, be partnering with us; not fighting against us. The foundation of our profession as
Librarians is to fight for your rights, as patrons, to have free access to
material that is relevant and/or interesting to you. We believe that EVERYONE has the right to
access information and further educate themselves in an effort for
self-improvement.
Blogs of Interest
In creating this post, I pulled information from some of my
favorite and most-read blogs. I hope you
find them interesting, informative, and occasionally, entertaining.
Librarianbyday.net
Librarianinblack.net
Freerangelibrarian.com
Paidcontent.org
A Spark?
If all of this has ignited a spark in you, and you feel
compelled to express your disappointment, outrage, or other feeling about this
situation, I have included here the contact information for the publishers who
refuse to sell electronic materials to libraries. (Thank you, Sarah Houghton, aka The L.I.B.)
