PW Report: “Penguin Random House Changes Library E-book Lending Terms”
UPDATED September 12, 2018: ReadersFirst Responds to Alan Inouye’s Commentary (Below) on Penguin Random House E-Book Policy Change
UPDATED September 6, 2018: Alan Inouye, Director of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy, Comments on the Penguin Random House policy change. See: “Evolution in the Library Ebook Market” (via American Libraries)
—
From Andrew Albanese at Publisher’s Weekly:
As of October 1, 2018, PRH is moving from a perpetual access model (where libraries pay a higher price but retain access to the e-book forever) to a metered model (with lower prices on e-books that expire after two years). In a letter to library customers, PRH v-p Skip Dye said the change was made after listening to librarians’ feedback.
[Clip]
The change in terms will apply to all Penguin Random House U.S., Penguin Random House Canada, DK and DK Canada titles. Under the new pricing, frontlist adult titles in the U.S. will be priced up to $55 (currently, adult prices are capped at $65.); Young adult titles up to $45; and children’s titles up to $35. The changes do not apply to e-books distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services.
Read the Complete Article
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, News, Publishing

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.