College Libraries Face Steep Ebook Price Increases
Academic libraries are trying to process major price increases from publishers for access to their ebooks, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. Publishers of academic content are increasing the cost of access to ebooks for college libraries by as much as 300 percent this summer.
Last week, Boston.com explored the relationship between public libraries and the publishing industry in the digital age, especially as it pertains to ebooks. Consumers and institutions like libraries do not buy ebooks from publishers. Instead, they buy a license to access the book. Because of that, publishers are able to work around copyright law to charge different prices for and put certain restrictions on different sorts of users. Libraries often pay significantly more for ebooks than consumers do, and are only given access for a limited amount of time or a limited amount of uses.
While librarians expressed plenty of frustration while we worked on that story, they were eager to note things had gotten better. Publishers have seemed more willing to work with librarians to help them access and lend ebooks, and the process has improved in the past couple of years.
That report was all about public libraries. In the academic world, things don’t appear to be plateauing into such a positive place.
The Chronicle reports academic libraries use a model that allows for on-demand lending. Libraries pay for a portion of an ebook each time they lend a given book until it has been lent a certain amount of times. At that point, the ebook is considered paid in full and the library gets the full license. The sudden price increase applies to this system. While academic library systems are calling foul—the head of the Boston Library Consortium, which represents 17 academic New England libraries, has even suggested publishers might be working in collusion—publishers say it’s business as usual.
“Publishers contend that the e-book-pricing model was still in beta, and that recent changes are simply a market correction,’’ The Chronicle reports.
Read the full Chronicle report here.
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