We will be updating this post with more info as it becomes available. Check back.
From the AP:
Hachette Book Group, which publishes Stephenie Meyer and Malcolm Gladwell among others, announced Wednesday that after two years of pilot programs it will offer its entire e-catalog to libraries. New books will be available simultaneously in paper and e-editions, a policy also recently adapted by Penguin Group (USA).
According to the Hachette web site books will become available beginning one week from today (May 8, 2013).
Update: Info From OverDrive About Availability of Hachette Titles:
- More tTan 5,000 eBooks Will be Available to Libraries and Schools
- eBooks Will Be Available in U.S. and Canada
- One-copy/One-user Lending Model
- No Checkout or Term Limit for the Titles
- “Standalone library systems and members of consortia that have an OverDrive Advantage account are eligible to add Hachette Book Group eBook titles to their collections. U.S. military libraries, as well as schools and colleges in the U.S. and Canada, are also eligible.”
Hachette Book Group’s full eBook catalog will be available to libraries with no delay on new titles.
NYPL President Tony Marx comments about today’s news and the state of ebook availability in libraries in a NY Times op/ed (published today) titled, “E-Books and Democracy”.
Marx writes:
Selection remains limited. The New York Public Library had 100,000 copies of 37,000 digital titles in circulation last year, compared with 6.5 million copies in circulation of 1 million print titles. Just as libraries decide which physical books to purchase and how many of each, we now will be deciding the same for e-books. We also have to educate patrons that they can download library e-books anywhere and on any device. Most Americans don’t even know that libraries offer e-books, according to national surveys.
We have every interest in seeing that publishers remain sustainable enterprises and that authors are paid fairly for their work. But those economic imperatives must be considered alongside the role of libraries in a democratic society.
See Also: Financial Times: NYPL Has Spent $1 Million on 45,000 E-books Since 2009 (February 2013)
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