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E-Book Embargo Hits U.S. Libraries

Thu, 10/31/2019 - 16:02
The East Hampton Library is among many in Suffolk County taking part in an e-book sharing program popular with patrons but now is threatened by a major publisher.
David E. Rattray

Macmillan Publishers, which produces work by some of the most popular authors, has announced an embargo on e-books for libraries. It is anticipated to affect patrons of public libraries not only on the South Fork but also across Suffolk County, according to library directors here.

Under the embargo, public libraries will be able to buy only one copy of an e-book for the first eight weeks after the book has been released. Because Suffolk County has a cooperative library system that buys e-books largely through a single distributor and allows for them to be shared from one database, Macmillan considers it one library.

Therefore, all of Suffolk’s libraries would share a single copy of each e-book. “It would be insane for 200 to 300 people to be waiting for one copy of a particular book,” said Denise DiPaolo, the director of the Montauk Library.

Directors warn of digital ‘haves and have-nots’

Dennis Fabiszak, the East Hampton Library’s director, said he is “extremely concerned about the Macmillan e-book embargo” because “e-books have become the preferred way to read books for many of our residents.”

“Older adults who have trouble reading small book type have turned to e-books, which allow the reader to increase the text to a comfortable reading size,” Mr. Fabiszak said. “Macmillan’s choice to embargo their e-books from libraries . . . will prevent access for our residents.”

The effect, Mr. Fabiszak and Ms. DiPaolo said, may be that Macmillan is cornering readers into buying their own copies of popular new books, rather than turning to libraries to borrow them for free. There will be a divide between those who can afford to buy books and those who can’t, the two library directors said.

“We’re afraid if [Macmillan] is successful, then the other big publishers are going to follow suit,” Ms. DiPaolo said.
E-books that were purchased before Nov. 1 will still be available via the county’s online lending system, known as Live-brary, also accessible via many local libraries’ websites. But as part of its new embargo, after the first eight weeks of a new book’s release Macmillan will also allow multiple copies of e-books purchased by libraries to be available only for two more years.
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The assertions of some library directors here are not shared universally, however. Alison Bond, a literary agent who lives in Sag Harbor and New York City, said it’s “a complex issue” that has to do with emerging technologies and how authors’ royalties are structured from e-books.

“How can the Live-brary . . . divide up whatever income they get [from libraries] to the correct author?” said Ms. Bond, who also serves on the board of the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. “The amount of royalties authors get either through their agents or directly is a market-driven number. How many items are sold? If a publisher sells an e-book . . . they’re only going to sell it once and it can be used by any number of people . . . and the author is not getting anything for it.” She added, “It’s basically to protect the authors’ legitimate income. That, to me, makes sense.”

Mr. Fabiszak compared the situation to what libraries experience with movies and shows from Netflix and Amazon. “Series which are only available to members of the two services are not made available on DVD for libraries to purchase and lend,” he said.

“This new trend of digital haves and have-nots is something that everyone should be concerned about,” he said.
Among the many authors whose books Macmillan publishes are Nora Roberts, James Patterson, David McCullough, and Louise Penny.

There are more than 300,000 titles in the Suffolk Cooperative Library System’s e-book collection. Kevin Verbesey, the system’s director, said Macmillan titles make up about 7 percent of its digital collection. Live-brary will not be fulfilling patrons’ requests for Macmillan titles and will not be purchasing single copies of new e-books while the embargo is in place, he said.

“The future of the Live-brary.com service (and library services in general) will be impacted by this situation,” Mr. Verbesey said in a statement emailed to libraries throughout the region. “We believe the long-term sustainability of your community library outweighs the short-term disappointment of a patron not being able to access Macmillan titles as easily and quickly as they are accustomed. We spend around $4 million annually on e-books/e-audio books and we plan to continue to spend that amount. We will be using funds that would have otherwise gone to purchase Macmillan titles (and towards keeping the waitlists on Macmillan titles short) on titles from other imprints so that there is plenty available for users who visit Live-brary.com.”

Ms. DiPaolo said Montauk patrons have downloaded 6,646 different titles of e-books so far this year. August, Montauk’s busiest month to date, saw 776 titles downloaded.

In East Hampton, digital book and video downloads have increased dramatically in recent years — up 56 percent so far from one year ago, Mr. Fabiszak said. He anticipates that patrons will have downloaded 33,000 items by the end of 2019.

A petition to stop the embargo is circulating at the website ebooksforall.org, launched by the American Library Association.

Macmillan did not respond to a request for comment by press time this week.

Lauren Nichols, the Amagansett Library’s director, said she feels “a big-five publisher standing in the way of that seems like a shortsighted business model.”

“As a librarian, I believe to my core in equal access to information,” she said.

Catherine Creedon, the director at John Jermain, said her library “is still reviewing the information in terms of the library’s response.” Kelly Harris, the director of the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, was not available for comment this week.


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