Publishers Put Clamps on Library Patrons’ E-book Access

When Amazon recently announced it would allow Kindle users to check out e-books at public libraries, something Nook and Sony reader owners have been able to do for some time, local Kindle readers must have been delighted to think hundreds of titles would finally be available to them at no cost. “Not so fast,” warns Scoville Memorial Library Director Claudia Cayne. While the 34,000 titles so far collected as e-books by Project Gutenberg — all of which are out of copyright and in the public domain — are available without restriction to all e-book readers, copyrighted titles are limited by publishers and by the consortium/aggregators that serve a finite group of libraries in an area. Cayne expresses dismay, even anger, that publishers established their e-book procedures and restrictions without consulting any group of librarians. “People tell me this is the way music companies first dealt with digital access,” she says. And she is right. Just as music companies thought they could control digital distribution as they did physical, publishers refused to deal realistically with how a library works and how patrons use it. As Cayne points out, most libraries have a copy of a popular title, “The DaVinci Code,” for example. But in the case of e-books, libraries must band together — the Scoville is in a group of 60 libraries — and only one copy of a new e-book title is allowed for the group. So only one e-book reader from all those 60 libraries can check out “The DaVinci Code” at a time. And libraries get little price break in acquiring e-book titles. Of course, the e-book comes with time limitations just like a physical book. “Usually an e-book reader can have a title for 14 days,” Cayne says. “If it is not checked in on time, it disappears from the reader’s device.” (Amazon sends a warning three days before the e-book is due.) “And for Kindle, you must have or open a Kindle account with Amazon, since you will download the library e-book through that account,” she points out. (Kindle books will be delivered through Wi-Fi only. Readers cannot use Amazon’s Whispernet service.) Surely these restrictions have limited the appeal of e-books in libraries. Only 10 to 20 new titles are added each month for all libraries in a group. At Scoville, Cayne estimates an average of 20 e-books are checked out monthly, although June, probably due to summer residents, saw 35 checkouts processed.(The Scoville also owns one of each e-book reader device, and these can be checked out, too. The devices have type-size adjustments that allow visually impaired readers to use them and do not have to resort to large-type books, which can be big and heavy.) All of this — restrictions, complications, limited titles — bothers Cayne as much as it does library patrons. But she thinks it’s early, yet, and that publishers will be forced to relax their stance eventually. The more people read in whatever format, the more books will be sold she figures.