If you saw my previous post about publishers who refuse to sell e-books to libraries, you may remember I encouraged you let them know how you feel about their restrictive policies. It seems the Librarian in Black had the same idea. As the Director of the San Rafael Public Library, she has posted the contact information for those publishers who make their electronic content unavailable to libraries and patrons. Please join us in the fight to provide access to the bestselling books you want to read, in whichever format you choose to read them. Thanks for your help!
Category: E-Books
Why Can’t I Download That Book?
Have you ever tried to download a bestselling novel from the library, only to find it wasn’t even listed catalog? You can find it in print from the library, but not the electronic version. What gives?
The short answer is publisher fear. Some publishers refuse to deal with libraries for fear their profit margin will shrink. Others impose a variety of restrictions that make purchasing an e-book far more expensive than purchasing a print copy. For an example, check out this post from Library Journal that explains why our library no longer judges purchasing titles from HarperCollins to be a wise use of taxpayer money. Still others, such as Penguin, have issues with Amazon, and libraries get caught in the middle.
For an excellent explanation of this convoluted mess, see this summary by the Times Colonist. Please understand that we, as librarians, would love to be able to purchase all of the e-books that you, our patrons want to read. We are doing are best to convince publishers that allowing library patrons to borrow their books may stimulate sales, rather than steal them. If you would like to add your voice, the publishers in question include HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan. Contact them and let them know what you think about their policies concerning e-books and libraries.
After writing the first draft of this post, I saw an article in Consumer Reports about publishers named above, who are currently under federal investigation for fixing prices on e-books in the US and Europe. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out…
OverDrive App Updates
For those of you using the OverDrive App to download e-books and audiobooks from the library, get ready for some useful updates. According to an OverDrive blog post, the following updates are already available for Android, Blackberry, and Windows phone users, and will become available to iOS (iPod, iPad, iPhone) users soon. [edit: early audiobook return for Apple devices became available on 2/17/12.]
Updates in OverDrive Media Console 2.4:
- Ability to return audiobooks early. (E-books have always had the capacity to be returned early.)
- Use the dictionary feature to look up words while reading.
- Use Wikipedia search while reading.
If you already have the OverDrive Media Console app installed on your device, it should update automatically next time it is opened. If it does not, try downloading the new version from the Android Market or directly from the OverDrive site.
Happy reading!
Penguin Restores Kindle Lending
For those of you who caught yesterday’s post about restrictions on e-books provided by Penguin Group, there has been a positive development. Today, OverDrive announced that Kindle lending has been restored on all Penguin titles currently held by libraries. New titles remain unavailable for purchase in any format, but at least this keeps the titles we already own available in all of the expected formats. We’ll keep you updated as we hear more…
Penguin Suspends E-Book Titles
For those of you following the ever-present drama surrounding OverDrive, our provider of e-books and audiobooks, a new chapter in the controversy has begun.
Without warning to library staff or users, Penguin Group (publisher) has removed their books from the OverDrive purchasing catalog, as well as voiding all current Kindle versions of their e-books. The publisher cites security concerns. So, if you received a notice that your requested e-book is available, but you can’t download it – this may be why.
At this point, we are unsure whether this action is permanent. We do know that previously purchased Penguin titles will still be available in non-Kindle formats, though new titles will be completely unavailable to us through OverDrive. For more information, please see this Forbes article.
Once again, I find myself apologizing on behalf of the library. Ordinarily, we like to give our patrons lots of notice when a big policy change is coming. We also like to be prepared to answer your questions and addresss your concerns. Unfortunately, changes regarding OverDrive seem to happen overnight, and we only hear about it after the fact. We’ve been through this before when HarperCollins decided to limit each e-book purchased to 26 uses. Or, how about when all of our e-books were suddenly available in Kindle format (good news!), but we had no prior instruction that would have allowed us to effectively manage the deluge of support requests. Rest assured, we will continue to do our best to pass information along as soon as we get it. Thank you, dear patrons, for your continued patience.