Many libraries have been struggling to deal with the rising costs of e-books and audiobooks as the demand at local libraries has seen an uptick in recent years.
Connecticut’s West Haven Public Library is one of many grappling with the high cost and demand for e-books. When a new book is released, a hardcover copy only costs the library $18, while a digital copy costs $55 to lease, and this price is set and cannot be negotiated with publishers.
The concern for many libraries is that the digital copies cost much more than what consumers pay for and usually expire after one to two years — or after 26 checkouts. Libraries then have to renew the leased material and allocate the costs into their budget.
According to the Associated Press, the West Haven Library has leased more than 276 e-books since 2021, 84 of them are no longer available, and it cost the library more than $12,000. That same amount would have covered about 800 books.
“Imagine if a playground was built at a school with tax dollars, only to be taken down after two years of use,” librarian Colleen Bailie said at a recent hearing.
Publishers argue that the pricing is fair, given that e-book licenses for libraries allow many readers to borrow the book, which makes the per-reader cost cheaper than the per-reader rate.
Many librarians across the country are asking Congress to limit the costs of digital titles, which have been increasingly popular since 2020. Lawmakers are now pushing to regulate the licensing deals for digital and audiobooks to expand access and limit the wait times for users.
“The high prices of e-books make it difficult for libraries to purchase all of the e-books their communities demand. In our public libraries, the wait lists for e-books are regularly six months long,” Ellen Paul of the Connecticut Library Consortium said in a statement.
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, Hawaii, and New Hampshire have also proposed bills to make e-books affordable.
“Many readers who are waiting for an e-book will never actually be able to borrow it because the library’s leasing terms will expire before it is their turn to borrow the book,” Paul said.
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Lawmakers and librarians are facing pushback from the publishing industry. The Connecticut Mirror reported that some publishers argue the bill would harm authors’ livelihoods.
“They do have a funding problem, but the answer is not to take it out of the pockets of authors and destroy the rights of creators and pass unconstitutional legislation,” Shelley Husband, the senior vice president of government affairs at the Association of American Publishers, said. Readers around the world borrowed 662 million digital articles last year, according to OverDrive.