Acorn Public Library to Offer e-Books

Acorn Public Library has learned to grow with the times. As trends in readership and patronage shift, the library has stocked videotapes, CDs, DVDs, computers, Wi-Fi and more—soon the library will offer patrons the latest in popular technology: the e-book.

Director of Acorn Public Library District Paul Mills announced on Feb. 28 that the e-books will become available this June.

We have heard from many of you that you would like books in this format, and we have listened to you and plan to provide them, wrote Mills, in his blog.

Shortly after the holidays, Mills said he noticed an increasing interest from patrons, noting that most probably received an e-reader as a gift. He also noticed while looking at numbers from other libraries that e-books were becoming a demand.

“On average in January 2010, 80 e-books were checked out, in January 2011 more than 2,400 e-books were checked out,” Mills said. “We’re just getting the word out now, but the patrons I’ve told about this are very excited.”

A consortium of local libraries are working together and using OverDrive, an e-book vendor. Instead of paying for the books, libraries pay for the license for the book. Mills said they currently have 3,000 titles in the collection so far.

Mills said he expects the library to pay OverDrive $6,000 annually: $2,000 for service fees and $4,000 for license fees.

A Snag in e-book Plans?

While this should be good news for the library, Mills went on to say in his blog that in the process of setting up the e-book program, the library learned that HarperCollins, one of the big six publishers of e-books, is changing the terms of their licensing agreement.

Until now, a library could purchase the license for a book and use it as many times as they liked, but HarperCollins is now saying that a license will only last 26 check-outs.

After an e-book is checked out for the 26th time, the library is responsible for paying for another license. If it does not pay, the license is taken away and deleted from the library’s system.

“Libraries, vendors and publishing companies have been treating e-books like regular books,” said Mills, “but a regular book couldn’t be taken away from us after we buy it.”

He cited a lawsuit against Amazon.com in 2009, as an example for needing an e-book user’s "bill of rights." Amazon.com deleted all copies of works by George Orwell on Kindle after it learned the works were unlicensed. The Kindle users paid for the book but had it taken away, which could never happen with a regular book. A settlement was reached and customers received their money back, but Mills said it is a perfect example why something needs to be done to protect e-book readers’ rights.

HarperCollins responded to librarians across the nation after OverDrive announced the changes in the license agreement. The publisher said that its policies were made 10 years ago, when eReaders were less popular. The policies are meant to protect vendors, publishers and authors’ rights, the publisher said.

“We have serious concerns that our previous e-book policy, selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book eco-system, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors” stated Josh Marwell, President of Sales of HarperCollins Publishers, in an open letter to all librarians. “We are looking to balance the mission and needs of libraries and their patrons with those of authors and booksellers, so that the library channel can thrive alongside the growing e-book retail channel.”

Mills said he understands the many concerns about the emerging e-book market, but wants everyone in the market to be treated equally.

“Vendors and publishing companies have been at the table talking, but libraries and consumers haven’t been able to get a seat at that table,” Mills said. “With a paperback, if you buy it, it’s yours, but you don’t have those rights if you buy licenses for e-books.”

As of right now, most e-books will still be treated as regular books.

“A book is only checked out by one person at a time and needs to be returned within 7 to 14 days,” said Megan Mall, Head of Adult Services. “The perk for patrons is that there isn’t a late charge. If an e-book is overdue, it will be deleted from the patron’s e-reader.”

Mills said that the e-book market needs to be looked at and make sure that everyone has equal rights, which is why he will closely follow the development of the e-book users’ bill of rights, but he is also excited that Acorn Public Library District can offer e-books to its patrons.

“We are really excited to offer this to the community. Libraries are always interested in offering all format of books,” Mills said. “We’re just concerned about the market.”