http://www.kansan.com/news/2011/nov/01/kansas-libraries-lead-way-e-book-access/?news
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
More e-books are available in libraries this year than ever before, and Kansas libraries are leading an effort to keep them there.
Nationwide, 82 percent of public libraries across the country offered e-books in 2011, up 10 percent from last year, according to a survey published by Library Journal. Academic libraries saw a more modest increase of one percent, with 95 percent in the nation offering e-books.
But with that increase, some libraries have seen the terms of their contracts with publishers change radically, raising the question of whether the libraries are purchasing ownership of the books, or merely renting them for the period of the contract. The State Library of Kansas recently decided to change vendors when prices spiked and the terms of ownership changed in a proposed contract renewal with OverDrive, a national e-book distributor. Jo Budler, the state librarian, balked at those changes and decided to let that contract expire in December. From then on, the state library will contract with 3M for its e-books and with Recorded Books for audio books.
“We’ve had a contract with OverDrive since 2005, and pricing was pretty steady up until a year ago,” Budler said. “There were two things in the renewal that were pretty problematic.”
The first problem, according to Budler, was a price increase of 700 percent. The state library currently pays OverDrive $10,800, but that cost would have increased each year under the new contract, reaching $75,000 in the third and final year.
The second problem was that the new contract left ownership of the content with OverDrive. The current contract gives the state library permanent access to all of the content it purchases. Under the new contract, the library would have lost all of the content if and when it left OverDrive.
“We said ‘no,’” Budler said. “We’re challenging that we lease rather than own.”
She said Kansas was, in some ways, a leader among libraries negotiating terms with publishers in the emerging e-book market.
Kansas was one of the first states to organize its libraries into a state-wide consortium to negotiate with publishers. Budler said that, at a conference last week, she spoke with librarians from other states who said they didn’t think their libraries had ownership of the digital content they were purchasing. Budler advised them to look closely at their contracts.
“You have to negotiate that,” she said.
The Kansas state library currently offers at least 2,447 e-books and 7,732 downloadable audiobooks, among other digital content.
The current contract with OverDrive ends December 5. Butler said the new contract with 3M provides for the libraries ownership of content, and other state libraries may not have reached such favorable terms. The state library will start testing 3M’s system in December. Budler said 3M was a little behind in its development of the state library’s platform, but that she didn’t think there would be any gap in downloadable availability between the end of the current contract and the beginning of the new one. More than half of the library’s e-books, and 40% of the audio books are currently moving over to the new 3M platform.
The e-books that patrons download from the library work on most electronic readers. Budler said the Amazon Kindle does not support some of those, but that Amazon was working with publishers to make the content and the readers compatible.
The Lawrence Public Library participates in the state library program, and patrons can download those e-books using their local library card, according to Sherri Turner, assistant director of the library. The state library provides its own card, which can also be used to download e-books and audio books from the state’s website. Turner said the local platform would accept those as well, in the future. She said the Lawrence library will adapt as the state library changes digital platforms.
“We’re still waiting for training and information to know exactly how that’s going to work for us,” Turner said. She said the state and local library websites also steered patrons toward sources of free downloadable content, such as Project Gutenberg, which provides classic literature and other works that are out of copyright.
KU Libraries has participated in the state-wide e-book program in the past, but now purchases digital content from various vendors and publishers, according to Lea Currie, head of collection development at KU Libraries.
“Most of the e-books provided by the state consortium are not appropriate for a research library,” Currie wrote in an e-mail. “Therefore, KU selects e-books that support the teaching and research of students and faculty at the research university level.”
Currie said the University will not be affected by changes at the state library, and will continue to purchase e-books at the same level or higher, depending on demand. Students can access the University’s collection through KU Libraries’ website.
— Edited by Jonathan Shorman
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