When we think of the
library we don’t typically think of book ownership, but instead the act of
borrowing. Libraries, do of course, have to purchase the books they lend,
however, I was surprised when I found out that ebook ownership was becoming a
problem for public libraries at last year’s TRY conference. Now, when I think
of ebooks and the library, I think of the ebook’s ability to break down
physical barriers between people and the library (this of course comes with its
own technological hardware/software barriers). However, the library faces its
own issues with acquiring ebooks – and those issues have to do with the
economics of ownership and access.
As individual ebook
consumers, part of the draw of purchasing an ebook is the low cover cost. For
libraries however, the opposite is true. While ebooks may be less expensive for
us, they are much more expensive for the library (roughly 1.5 the price, and
sometimes higher according to Lou (2015)). This heightened cost also comes with
much greater use restrictions which bring the idea of “ownership” into
question. For example, ebooks can be restricted by the number of patrons who
can use them at a time and the number of uses allowed in a single year (Lou,
2015). When a library purchases an ebook, they may not even own it at all, but
in fact be licensing it for a given period (such as a year), after which they
have to purchase the ebook again in order to continue lending it. In stark
contrast, Lou (2015) highlights how such “Usage restrictions and price
differentials do not exist for physical books, which libraries sometimes can
buy for up to 40 per cent off their shelf prices.” By implementing strict
restrictions on sharing and use for ebooks, publishers are seen as “imping[ing]
on the fundamental mechanisms by which libraries make information available to
patrons” (Walter, 2013, p. 90).
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Thinking back to Bobby Glushko’s lecture this week, we can see how publishers attempt to maintain the ebook’s status as a rivalrous good – only one person can access an ebook at a time, thereby depriving other people of the ability to read the book. This is, of course, how libraries have always functioned – they have a limited number of books that can only go out to one reader at a time. However, typically when a physical book has more than 6 readers waiting to read it, the library will purchase another copy of the book (Lou, 2015). The same approach cannot always be taken with ebooks – libraries are less likely to purchase an additional copy because of the high cost (Lou, 2015).
My own experience
with accessing ebooks through the library also highlights some of the negative
features associated with ebook “lending.” Not only do libraries have to pay
exorbitantly high costs to get their readers access to ebooks, but this access
can itself be rather restrictive. These kind of restrictions usually present themselves
as page limits (such as the ability to download or print a specific number of
pages), reading platform restrictions (the need to download a specific reading
platform to your device, such as Adobe Reader), as well as limits on the
readers ability to annotate and save annotations made in a text. I even
sometimes encounter books where DRM features have been enabled so that you
can`t annotate a book and you cannot highlight or copy the text.
Together, I think the
ownership hurdles placed on libraries, in addition to the usage restrictions
placed on ebook readers, highlights a major issue with the sales model and
design of ebooks for libraries. Why are libraries being charged more for a
digital copy of a book when that book does not allow for some of the key
benefits that come with digital reading (such as portability, annotation, copy
and paste)? Are publishers price gouging because there is a high demand
for ebooks among library users? It occurs to me as I write this that it may be
the case that there are some library users that only experience
ebooks by borrowing them. How then are these users' understanding of, and
experience with ebooks shaped by the restrictive DRM controls placed on these
ebooks? I don’t currently have all the answers, but I definitely think this is
an area that needs addressing if the benefits of ebook reading are going to be
experienced fully by library users.
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References
Lou, Ethan. 2015.
“High Ebook Prices ‘unsustainable,’ Says City’s Top Librarian.” The
Toronto Star, June 18.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/18/high-ebook-prices-unsustainable-says-citys-top-librarian.html.
Walters,
William. 2014. "E-Books in Academic Libraries: Challenges for Sharing and
use." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 46 (2): 85-95
doi:10.1177/0961000612470279.
I can't help but think of an offhand comment that Bobby made during his talk--something along the lines that app "discipline" the web. Ebooks in Libraries discipline not only due to DRM hurdles, but also licencing and restrictions on borrowing. I think that there is definitely something here about apps as disciplinary that is related to the disciplinary nature of publishers towards libraries.
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