Some library consortia have decided to forgo the purchase of HarperCollins ebook titles effective today in the wake of the publisher’s decision to set a license limit of 26 checkouts per title and also amid concerns about what may be next. In addition, an American Library Association task force is convening this week in Washington to begin addressing the question of equitable access to electronic content.
Joan Kuklinski, the executive director of the Central/Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing consortium (C/W Mars) which serves 155 libraries, decided last week to suspend, effective today, the purchase of any new HarperCollins titles for the digital catalog, calling the publisher’s policy “counter-intuitive” to the consortium’s “strong policy of resource sharing.”
It’s a simple decision
Something is going to cost more money than they want to spend. Simple. Don’t buy it.