SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

February 25, 2011 by Gary Price

It's Always Something: "Publishing Industry Forces OverDrive and Other Library eBook Vendors to Take a Giant Step Back" (via Librarian by Day)

February 25, 2011 by Gary Price

From a Librarian by Day Blog Post:

Yesterday I received an email from OverDrive with an attachment titles OverDrive Partner Library Update from Steve Potash [CEO over OverDrive], I glanced at it and filed it away in my to-read pile for a later date (which honestly means I may never have gotten to it). This morning Heather Braum brought it to my attention via this post by Joe Atzberger.
The contents of this document are spun in a positive way and there are some great things coming from OverDrive, but in between the good news is some bad news, some really bad news.

Here are a few points from the letter Steve Potash sent yesterday. The full text (PDF) is available on the Librarian By Day Web Site.
1. Publishers are concerned about e-book licensing agreements where what you purchase is yours forever. Keep reading.
2. Next week OverDrive will announce that one publisher, Harper Collins] will implement a plan that places new e-books (it’s not retroactive) checkout limits on each licensed title. The one-copy/one-user model continues but now after 26 checkouts the book will no longer be available without relicensing the book. This is the case for other ebook providers not only OverDrive.
3. But that’s not all!
From the Potash Letter:

Our publishing partners have expressed concerns regarding the card issuance policies and qualification of patrons who have access to OverDrive supplied digital content. Addressing these concerns will require OverDrive and our library partners to cooperate to honor geographic and territorial rights for digital book lending, as well as to review and audit policies regarding an eBook borrower’s relationship to the library (i.e. customer lives, works, attends school in service area, etc.).

4. What about members of consortia and shared collection?
Here’s something for them:

Another area of publisher concern that OverDrive is responding to is the size and makeup of large consortia and shared collections. Publishers seek to ensure that sufficient copies of their content are being licensed to service demand of the library’s service area, while at the same time balance the interests of publisher’s retail partners who are focused on unit sales.

Again, the full text (PDF) is available here.
All of this comes after a massive amount of media attention and an large influx of new e-book borrowers who are at least willing to try the service even if they often have to jump through hoops to access the material.
Another problem, the inability to find an e-book to borrow without waiting several weeks has been the case for the INFOdocket team in Maryland and Florida.
Both of these concerns are mentioned in a superb commentary by Eric Hellman on his Go to Hellman blog.
So, the library world is providing a service that the media likes to report on and users appear to appreciate even with its many problems. In other words, library-based e-books have become a popular service at many libraries and what happens, some publishers (we don’t know how many) want to change the rules about licensing material. It’s not that they can’t change licensing agreements but what about working with the library community (aka their customers) to try and find a solution that works for all parties prior to making an “here’s what we’re doing” announcement.
What’s the point of marketing/promoting a service and then have to make significant changes in an area as important as cost because the service is being used?
See Also: Comments by Peter Brantley (via Reading 2.0)
See Also: “HarperCollins Puts 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Circulations” (via Library Journal)

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Publishing

SHARE:

E-Books

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

The French Open Science Monitor 2022: 67% Of Publications in Open Access and New Indicators for Research Data...

From the The Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Government of France: The Ministry of Higher Education and Research publishes the results of the French Open Science Monitor for 2022. ...

Conference Paper: "Responding to Digital Misinformation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Effective Countermeasures"

From a Post on the Programme On Democracy & Technology (DemTech), Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford) Website: Several members of our research team will be attending the 2023 International ...

Report: Connecticut Dedicates $1M to Digitize Historical Documents

From Governing:  At a time when many states dispute whether accurate history should be taught in schools, Connecticut Historical Society is celebrating $1 million in federal funding to digitize its ...

arXivLabs Adds Two New Integrations That "Provide Insights Into the Academic 'Influence' of Researchers and Enable Reproducibility Through...

From an arXiv Blog Post: arXivLabs, a framework for enabling the arXiv community to contribute to arXiv, continues to grow. We recently rolled out two new integrations—DagsHub and Influence Flower—to provide our ...

Bard College: Robert Storr Gives 25,000 Volumes, the Core of His Library, and Papers From His Professional Archive to Center...

From Bard College: The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) today announced that acclaimed curator Robert Storr has donated major selections of his library and archive, an intensely ...

Pen America: U.S. Is Experiencing the Biggest Attack on First Amendment Rights ‘In Generations’; Harry Ransom Center Acquires...

ACRL Acquires Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy (TATIL) Chat-Based Search and Discovery: Perplexity AI For iOS App Released & AI Search Startup Raises $26 Million To Offer Rival To ...

Report: "Fast-Growing Open-Access Journals Stripped of Coveted Impact Factors"

From a Science Article by Jeffery Brainard: Nearly two dozen journals from two of the fastest growing open-access publishers, including one of the world’s largest journals by volume, will no ...

Statement: American Library Association (ALA) Condemns Ongoing Threats Against Libraries

Here’s the Full Text of an ALA Statement (March 27, 2023): The American Library Association (ALA) condemns—in the strongest terms possible—the violence, threats of violence and other acts of intimidation ...

HathTrust Launching an "In-Depth Process of Exploration, Discovery, and Strategic Visioning, to Begin Our Next 15 Years"

From HathiTrust: The world has changed dramatically in the 15 years since HathiTrust’s creation and even more so in the 5 years since we adopted our 2019-2023 Strategic Directions. Despite the ...

IMLS Names Finalists for 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Service

From the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS): The Institute of Museum and Library Services is pleased to announce 30 finalists for the 2023 National Medal for Museum and ...

Upcoming Event: U.S. Repository Network Action Plan Update; Detailed Agenda and Updated Schedule Now Available For Spring 2023...

Anticipating Preservation Needs of Archived Audio Tapes (via Library of Congress) Congress Introduces Bill to Tackle College Textbook Costs (via SPARC) Detailed Agenda and Updated Schedule Now Available For Spring ...

Illinois and Iowa Propose Book Ban Legislation With Opposing Goals; Louisiana: ACLU Of Louisiana Releases Open Letter on...

Connecticut: CT Librarians Raise Their Voices About Banned Books. ‘We Don’t Have Porn.’ (via CT Post) Illinois and Iowa Propose Book Ban Legislation With Opposing Goals (via WQAD) Iowa: Librarian Fighting For a ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.