Stouffville library adds voice to e-book pricing controversy

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 7, 2016
By Sandra Bolan

Public libraries pay three to five times more than individuals for ebooks.

“It’s unsustainable for public libraries,” said Jeff Bennett co-ordinator of digital services for the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library.

Whitchurch-Stouffville, along with a number of other libraries, has joined the Fair eBook Pricing Initiative, which is a public campaign spearheaded by the Toronto Public Library, Canadian Library Council, Ontario Library Association and Canadian Library Association, to draw attention to the mark-up of ebooks to libraries and what it means to the public.

Through OverDrive, more than 30,000 libraries, including Whitchurch-Stouffville, have access to more than two million ebooks, audiobooks and videos.

Although the library is part of this purchasing consortium, it still has to pay publishers the full price for the licensed use of ebooks, according to Bennett.

Mindy Kahling’s newest release Why Not Me? sells to the ebook consumer for $14.99. A library pays $85, according to the Fair eBook Pricing Initiative website.

Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel is $15.99 to Kobo/Kindle users, but libraries again pay $85.

Robert Galbraith’s Career of Evil sells for $16.99 to individual ebook purchasers, but libraries pay $110, according to the Fair eBook Pricing Initiative’s website.

Each purchase is for a limited time and/or specific number of loans. Renewals are the same price.

“It’s these restrictions and the high cost that makes the pricing model unsustainable for public libraries,” Bennett said.

“The reason why publishers are so hostile to libraries is because the ebooks are loaned out to people who might otherwise be customers, they, the publishers, need to compensate for those perceived losses,” according to Michael Kozlwski, editor of Good e-Reader, which is a website dedicated to ebook news.

OverDrive is the largest distributor of ebooks to libraries. Despite its number of titles and copies per title, there is no guarantee patrons can access what they want, in particular the best sellers/new releases when they want.

For example, there are two digital copies of Kahling’s book on OverDrive, but there are 38 people, per copy, on the waiting list.

Sandra Brown’s Friction has four digital copies on OverDrive and 23 people, per copy, on the wait list.

“We’re going to think twice with our budget ... so less people get their hands on ebooks,” Bennett said.

In the past year, the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library had 187,668 print book transactions, which includes renewals and checkouts for all ages, according to Bennett.

In the same time period, there were more than 25,000 ebook transactions.

Along with OverDrive, the Whitchurch-Stouffville library also utilizes 3M and Ebsco for ebooks.

The library spends about $120,000 on print books annually and roughly $15,000 on ebooks, according to Bennett.

The only way libraries can be saved, according to Kozlwski, is by “throwing down with Amazon.”

In a recent article, Kozlwski wrote Amazon should start a distribution system that would allow libraries around the world to tap into “the Kindle ebook ecosystem” and offer better deals than major publishers.

But the reality is “I don’t think libraries have the ability to pushback, because all of the major digital distributors have the same type of pricing mechanism, such as Overdrive in Canada,” he said.

The Sun-Tribune contacted the Canadian Publishers’ Council, which represents the interests of publishers, including Harlequin and Harper Collins. The company did not respond at the time to our publication deadline.