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State of America’s Libraries Report 2011: E-book Controversy

Submitted by Mark Gould on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:57
Illustration: 
The State of America's Libraries Report 2011

In early March, HarperCollins, publisher of authors such as Anne Rice, Sarah Palin and Michael Crichton, announced that it will not allow any one copy of its e-books to be checked out from a library more than 26 times. After that, the license on the e-book will expire and libraries will have to decide whether to buy a new one, raising the possibility that e-books that are not repurchased would be available at the library for only about a year.

 
Many librarians fear that other publishers could adopt a similar model. They argue that the restrictions place an additional burden on financially strapped public libraries.
 
“This strikes at the heart of what we do,” said Mary Dempsey, Chicago Public Library commissioner, who described electronic media as the new virtual library. “With limited financial resources affecting all libraries across America, people are asking, ‘Why would you do this?’”
 
HarperCollins, the nation’s second-largest publisher (behind Random House), takes another view.
 
“We have serious concerns that our previous e-book policy, selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book eco-system, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors,” the company said in a statement.
 
For most libraries, e-books are only a small percentage of circulated items but represent the fastest-growing segment. The Chicago Public Library, for example, doubled its circulation of e-books, from 17,000 in 2009 to more than 36,000 in 2010. 
 
Most e-books, like their hard-copy cousins, are loaned for three weeks, after which they become unavailable on the reading device and must be downloaded again. Librarians say the procedure should remain the same for e-books and printed books.
 
“When we purchase a print copy, we get to keep it for as long as we want,” said Audra Caplan, president of the Public Library Association. “It may eventually wear out or not circulate, but that’s our choice.”