With technology advancing every day it is inevitable that it is here to stay in the library profession. While technology is supposed to make life easier some may argue that it also brings more problems for the library profession and the institutions. With e-readers, new problems are arising and changing the rules of the library game. Recently Library Journal posted an article about Harper-Collins new lending terms for e-readers for library services and the problems librarians are facing.
Recently this past spring, one of the major publishers Harper-Collins revised their lending terms for e-books and this has cause an outcry from some members in the library community. In their new agreement, Harper-Collins stated that new books that came out via library e-book lenders will only be able to circulate 26 times before the book license expires. This may not seem like a problem at first but if a title is popular, the book license could easily expire quickly and this will cost libraries quite a bit of money. Harper-Collins claimed they settled on 26 circulation limit based on the average life span of a book and factoring in the wear and tear that “print books” encounter. Harper-Collins claims one of the reasons they changed their policy is because it would lead to more book sales and royalties for their authors.
These new lending term agreements are leaving librarians with new problems. Librarians are already struggling with budget cuts and e-book lending policies and user issues, this new policy just leaves more problems for them. Some librarians are even boycotting Harper-Collins products altogether until the publishing company comes up with better terms. Libraries across the country including the Central/Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing consortium, the Upper Hudson Library System, and others are temporarily not buying Harper-Collins publications.
In the end is it really up to the publishers to control the circulation terms for libraries? Libraries are already struggling in this economy and publishers do not know the patrons the libraries serve, so maybe publishing companies need to re-consider their e-book lending terms.
Rapp, D. (2011, April). Harper Collins: 26 -Loan Cap on Library Books. Library Journal, 16-17.
Team Hedgehog blogs about the effects that eBooks and eReaders are having on the LIS professions.
The second sentence of your post is so true: while I certainly can't imagine today's world without technology, and it's nice to be able to access my library catalog straight from home, I sometimes wonder if the library profession would be easier without such technological advances!
ReplyDeleteBefore this post, I admit that I had no idea that publishers were so restrictive with libraries and the e-books within those libraries. That's interesting that the cap is 26, as I can imagine some very popular books would want to circulate much more than 26 times! I'm also inclined to agree with your last sentence: publishers are not frequently in the library, and I feel the publishers should be less restrictive as to better serve the public.
What a very informative post! I would have never known some of this information, so thanks for this! :)
Molly Henning