Ebooks and Libraries

Do you love ebooks?  Do you enjoy their portability and convenience? Are you one of the millions who received a Kindle or other type of ereader over the holidays, and now you're looking for sources of good reading material? Did you know that your local library has ebooks for loan? In a few simple steps, you can download a title and read it for two weeks, just like a print book. Just go to the Maplewood Library homepage, and click on the link for the OverDrive download site.

Although the has hundreds of titles for download, including classic titles through Project Gutenberg that you can read forever on your device, you may see that some of your favorite authors or titles are not to be found in our listings. This is sometimes just a result of the newness of our collection, and we always welcome suggestions for new purchases.  But sometimes the choice is out of our hands.

The fact is that some publishers have not adapted well to the ebook environment, and are placing obstacles before their use in public libraries.  Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster will not sell their titles to public libraries at all.  Random House recently raised most prices on ebooks for public libraries as much as 300 percent.  Harper Collins gained notoriety last year by restricting library ebook titles to 26 uses, after which, the title simply goes away from the collection. (In reality, the public library does not purchase an actual ebook file, but leases access to it, and that access can be taken away.)

Some publishers believe that a sale to a library means many sales not made to the public.  This is not a new argument; publishers complained about this very thing when libraries were only buying paper books, or when we started stocking CDs and DVDs.  It is natural for publishers to want to make a profit, and libraries certainly do not want to prevent that.  The fact is, study after study has shown that people who use libraries don't just use libraries, they also buy a lot of books. Libraries are in fact powerful advertising tools for the publishers. This will surely continue to be true when the books are electronic.

You can help libraries to make this point to the publishers, that library use of ebooks promotes and fosters the purchase and use of ebooks outside the library.  If you found a new author from an ebook you borrowed from the library and then bought every ebook by that author to keep on your device, drop the publisher a note and tell them that. If you are one of those power users who borrow a lot of ebooks from the library and buy a lot, as well, write in and let your voice be heard. Help us to educate publishers that libraries are not enemies of their profits, and that ebook publishers and libraries share the common goal of supporting the love of reading.