Librarian Unhappiness Over New Harper e-Book Lending Policy Grows

The sometimes uneasy relationship between librarians and book publishers reached a new level of tension after HarperCollins—citing the explosive growth of e-book sales—announced a new e-book lending policy beginning March 7 that will limit the length of its library licenses to a maximum of 26 loans per e-title. The revised policy has outraged librarians, who say the new policy will strain budgets and is shortsighted, ignoring the role of libraries in encouraging literacy and building an e-book market for publishers. The issue has become so emotional that some librarians have organized a boycott of HarperCollins new books over the issue.

Full article at Publisher’s Weekly

March 4, 2011 by Uncategorized 2

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2 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:
    March 4, 2011 at 9:29 am

    All very true and relevant but…
    it’s fairly simple. Don’t buy HC e-books. Maybe even don’t buy HC print books either in protest if you are that bothered.

    Ignoring the whole e-rights issue it also comes down to cost. Buying e-books for public libraries under this scheme will be prohibitively expensive. So don’t do it.
    Dadahhhh!

    It’s a free market thing. Just because a product exists doesn’t mean you have to buy it. You also don’t have to provide everything in a library, especially when costs are so tight anyway.
    Are there really that many libraries where the provision of e-books is money better spent than on print?
    If someone wants an e-book they will probably buy it. You don’t need to pander to the minority of people that want the newest thing.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    March 4, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    Yep
    Had academic libraries treated the rise in serial prices as an economic issue 30 years ago we would have a very different situation today. The previous poster is correct. Simply stop buying from HarperCollins, end of discussion.

    Reply

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