News Report #5

“Will Your Local Library Lend E-Books? (Or Can They?)”
Audrey Watters, NY Times – Read Write Web
11/11/10
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/11/10/10readwriteweb-will-your-local-library-lend-e-books-or-can-3532.html?ref=internet

Calling some Americans “old-fashioned” for preferring a bound book over its new fangled e-book counterpart and sadly you wouldn’t be making a statement that is too far off. Current sales of e-books, provided by Amazon, are heavily outweighing those of both paperback and hardcover books; proof that the written word has its place in the 21st century, in a digitized form. With the demand for e-books climbing, some publishers are concerned that their sales will plummet and the market for e-books will disappear altogether if they allow libraries to lend out e-books. The Publisher Association has decided that they will allow libraries to offer e-books with extreme limitations. The e-book reader will be confined to only being able to read the book while inside the library as well as only being able to lend one e-book to one individual at a given time. However, not all publishers agree with the restrictions, claiming that trying to “apply physical barriers to digital commodities shows a lack of digital understanding.” These publishers are expanding into an unknown territory for their company and have to treat this new market as such. Libraries will still be purchasing the books from the publishers and lending them out, one copy at a time, just like bound books.

I think it is outrageous that publishers are trying to limit the use of their digital products to libraries. It not only shows a lack of technological “respect” from the publishers but also a stifling sense of having information and literature controlled by “the man”. The article cited that one publisher, Faber and Faber, admitted themselves that libraries only account for 4% of their buying market for books. Considering that libraries will be continuing to buy books from publishers, however in the digital form, the publishers will still be receiving the same compensation as they would have been for their paperback versions. Hopefully the Publisher Association will come to their senses and begin to focus on the fact that the market for e-books has so much to offer the general public and less on what their company’s income statement looks like.