Local librarians are known for squeezing a lot of service from the limited money they have, but their dollars haven’t been green enough to solve emerging problems in digital lending.
The Denton Public Library began offering downloadable books in 2007, when the list of available titles was shorter and the technological limits greater. In recent years, some smaller libraries, such as the Decatur Public Library and the Aubrey Area Library, have begun offering downloadable books through their consortium, contracting as a group with digital lending service OverDrive.
Cleveland-based OverDrive has 700,000 titles from more than 1,000 publishers. Some publishers have quietly been staying away. Others have not-so-quietly walked away, as when Penguin Group announced its split with OverDrive in November.
The resulting fragmentation of services has some librarians concerned. Some patrons are upset, too.
“Our customers who have a card want to be able to check out materials,” said Eva Poole, director of the Denton Public Library.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project surveyed U.S. households before and after the 2011 holiday season and found that ownership of tablet computers and electronic readers grew significantly. Before the holidays, 18 percent of households had such a device. By January, that jumped to 29 percent of households.
Digital lending works like regular lending, Poole said. Whether a book is downloaded to a computer or an e-reader, the file expires when the borrowing period ends. Librarians don’t think digital lending will affect sales of electronic titles any more than traditional lending has affected regular book sales, Poole said.
“That’s the point libraries have been trying to get across: People come to the library to find an author or discover something they might want to add to their own library,” Poole said.
Still, considering how the music and movie industries have been affected by new sales outlets, publishers are concerned not only about security and piracy but also third-party vendors hurting their business as well as libraries.
“Change is hard,” Poole said.
Sophie Cottrell, speaking on behalf of Hachette Book Group, home to a number of New York publishers, including the publisher of the popular Lemony Snicket books, said via e-mail that her company is trying to resolve the complex issues in digital library lending.
“HBG is running a pilot program which will soon make our e-books available to millions of patrons,” Cottrell said, adding that the company’s digital audiobooks are already widely available.
Representatives from the American Library Association have been meeting with publishers, bringing concerns from both sides to the table, Poole said.
“I’m hopeful we can work something out,” Poole said.
Penguin’s prepared statement about the recent talks underscores the importance of the partnership between publishers and libraries, according to company spokeswoman Erica Glass.
“Looking ahead, we are continuing to talk about our future plans for e-book and digital audiobook availability for library lending with a number of partners providing these services,” Glass said in the statement.
Following the discussions, Penguin stopped offering additional copies of e-books and audiobooks for purchase via OverDrive on Feb. 10.
David Burleigh, director of marketing for OverDrive, agreed that the fact they don’t have deals with the biggest publishers gets a lot of attention, but said the company still has a lot of good digital content from many publishers.
“We’re adding constantly,” Burleigh said. “We still have lots of good materials and long waiting lists, which says there is demand for our services.”
For now, Donna Pierce, librarian at the Krum Public Library, is waiting for the two sides to settle their issues before using some of her budget to invest in digital lending.
Even with the consortium’s group contract, “it’s several thousand dollars — just for us — to get involved,” Pierce said.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .
