The Booksellers Association is meeting its council members after expressing concerns over the government’s long-awaited library review proposed a ban on the sector charging for e-books.
In a submission sent to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 25th January, the BA said it was “worried about the loaning of e-books in the library market”.
The submission also said there was “undeniable tension” between the library world and authors, publishers and booksellers. It stated: “The former want to give as much information to their ‘customers’ for free; the latter to make a living by creating, producing and selling copyrighted material.”
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Fiona Marriott, principal librarian for adult services at Luton, said the situation was “difficult” because the set-up costs for e-book systems could be “very large”. She added she was “concerned” that if the proposal for free e-book loans goes ahead those who were previously undecided over whether to supply e-books would be more likely not to because of the cost involved.
Marriott said libraries could look at sponsorship as a way of financing e-books.
Note: We are interested to learn if OverDrive, NetLibrary, and others who offer eBooks (and audiobook) services to libraries in the U.S. plan to offer them in the UK and elsewhere?
Also, how would these providers deal with similar concerns from American publishers?
Two weeks ago we posted a few comments from the CEO of MacMillan, John Sargent. He said that eBooks might cause a change in the publisher/library relationship and eBooks,publishers and libraries are a "very thorny issue."
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