Casey Rosseau of West Hartford, Connecticut, has worsening eyesight. So he listens to about 200 audiobooks per year through his library’s Libby app on his phone. But the most popular works have months-long waiting lists.
That’s because digital titles often come with a price tag for libraries that’s far higher than what individual consumers pay. Say you buy a new e-book for $14. One hardcover copy of that novel might cost your library $18, the same price you would pay. But it costs the library around $55 to lease the digital book you bought. So budgets limit how many digital copies libraries can offer.
Your e-book has no expiration date. Libraries must renew their leased e-material. Those e-book and audiobooks often expire—usually after one or two years or 26 checkouts.
And electronic material has grown quickly in popularity. Readers across the globe borrowed 662 million e-books, audiobooks, and digital magazines last year, according to OverDrive. The company is the main distributor of digital content for libraries.
The West Haven Library in Connecticut spent more than $12,000 over the last three years to lease just 276 additional digital titles beyond what patrons can access through a group of libraries. Eighty-four of those books are no longer available. The same amount of money would have bought about 800 paper books.
Publishers argue that their licenses for libraries are fair. They allow numerous patrons to “borrow” them. Still, the per-reader cost for an $18 physical book is much less than that of a $55 digital title.
Publishers like Macmillan fear that potential customers will simply borrow books for free rather than buying them. The higher prices are intended to bring in more money, limit libraries’ supply, and motivate customers to purchase their own digital copies. Publishers say they need to protect their industry and intellectual property values.
But many librarians push back. “For them to say ‘We’re doing this so people will come and buy our books’—no they won’t, [not] necessarily. They’ll do without,” Michelle Simon told Tucson Local Media. Simon works at the Pima County Public Library in Arizona.
Julie Holden of the Cranston Public Library in Rhode Island points out that libraries and publishers aren’t the only ones with a financial stake in the situation.
“Taxpayers who fund our public libraries deserve better,” she says.
Why? For public libraries, using limited funds wisely while offering in-demand digital resources is a challenge when publishers also need compensation for their work.
