March 14, 2011
HarperCollins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
The Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) and its thirty-five member public libraries are opposed to the recent decision by HarperCollins to establish a new e-content licensing policy.
Through SALS, member libraries purchase and share e-book content through Overdrive. Library staff and system staff work to purchase and sustain a collection of ebooks to fulfill the reading interests of the people who reside in Saratoga, Warren, Washington and Hamilton Counties. We are pleased to offer both ebooks and downloadable audio books in our library service area.
System and library staff believe the “countdown use licensing” is contrary to the idea of a vibrant public library collection, and furthermore, it hurts libraries and communities, especially now with our ever-shrinking materials budgets.
Electronic File vs Book
The notion of comparing use of an electronic file to the use of a hardcover book is not relevant. One wears out, the other does not. Even when the book does wear out, the owning library can choose to withdraw it or repair it and let it circulate again. The electronic file, on the other hand, never wears out.
When a library purchases books, it can be in multiple formats – print, large print, paperback, audio books on CD, etc. An eBook is simply another format for libraries. It is up to the individual library and its collection development policies to decide when to purchase additional copies of a title – usually because there is a demand or a long reserve list. Additional copies are purchased to meet the reading demands of each individual community, not on the number of times a title may circulate. Imagine the square footage that would be necessary if a library needed to purchase a second copy of a title because it circulated twenty-six times?
Your decision to require libraries to purchase a virtual eBook once it has circulated twenty-six times will prevent libraries from having a rich collection of titles. Libraries in today’s economy cannot afford to replace the same title over and over again, thus not having the ability to purchase newer eBook titles.
Ownership vs Licensing
Libraries routinely buy books and other materials in order to own them as physical objects. When public library systems and public libraries purchase ebook files through a vendor such as Overdrive, they are “owned” or licensed only for as long as they have a contract with Overdrive. Those files, whether they are ebooks or audio books, are gone once the agreement with Overdrive is discontinued. Libraries never own the eBook, but rather license it for the life of the contract.
While libraries are used to licensing content for a period of time, there is no analogous model to license or purchase content for a specified number of uses. We have database content that is licensed for use by a population in a geographic region. We have databases licensed for use on a certain library network, or even on a specific computer. We have no databases or other content that we license for a specific number of accesses.
We do see a future day where content providers offer access to content “just in time” via inexpensive and instantaneous licensing on the fly that we will seamlessly acquire on behalf of a particular patron’s needs. However today is not that day. We urge you to work with the library community towards this model, but in the meantime, jettison the misguided Countdown model.
Sincerely,
Sara Dallas
Director
Southern Adirondack Library System
22 Whitney Place
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866