{"id":9461,"date":"2011-03-09T09:34:26","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T13:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.duke.edu\/blogs\/scholcomm\/?p=9461"},"modified":"2011-03-09T09:34:26","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T13:34:26","slug":"did-he-really-say-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/03\/09\/did-he-really-say-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Did he really say that?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Librarians have raised a pretty loud outcry<\/a> (for librarians) about the new e-book pricing policy announced last week by Harper Collins, under which libraries would be able to loan an e-book only a set number of times before having to pay again to continue lending.\u00a0 This model seems unfair to libraries, especially because they would not be able to plan their budgets, since the actual cost of each e-book purchased this way would be unknown and variable.\u00a0 But now publishing consultant Martin Taylor has written a column praising Harper Collins<\/a> and telling librarians to suck it up and fork over the money.\u00a0 His core argument is that publishers have \u201cserious concerns\u201d about the impact of library lending on their e-book markets and that \u201clibrarians have not managed to address [these concerns].”\u00a0 This, to my mind, is a remarkable statement.<\/p>\n

It is not the job of librarians to address the concerns publishers have for their bottom line; to say that we should implies a view that libraries are nothing more than a market, the existence of which is justified only insofar as they serve publisher\u2019s interests.\u00a0 But libraries serve the interests of an altogether different clientele.\u00a0 Public libraries serve the readers of their geographic areas and are responsible to local boards or town councils.\u00a0 Academic libraries serve students, faculty and, often, the local populace, while being responsible for their fiscal management to deans and provosts.\u00a0 Publishers are entitled, if they want, to make a business decision about how they price e-books, but libraries are equally entitled to make a business decision about how to spend their money in ways that best serve their patrons and their institutions.\u00a0 If buying e-books under this new model is not good for our patrons, publishers have no cause to complain or berated us for being out-of-touch.<\/p>\n

Taylor suggests that the price for each loan of an e-book under the Harper Collins model is reasonable.\u00a0 But this claim confuses price with value.\u00a0 No matter what the price of each loan is, if the book represents a drain on a library\u2019s resources that cannot be known in advance, it is a bad value.\u00a0 There is almost no scenario in which a library\u2019s money would not be more responsibly spent elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Some publishers have always disliked the deference to libraries that is built in to US policy and, under the \u201cfirst sale\u201d doctrine that is found in section 109 of the Copyright Act, US law.\u00a0 First sale was first formally recognized in US law in 1903, when Bobbs-Merrill publishing tried to control the down-stream pricing of one of their books by placing a statement on the title page claiming that the book could never be sold for less than $1.\u00a0 When Macy\u2019s department stories offered the book at a discount, Bobbs-Merrill sued and lost in the U.S. Supreme Court.\u00a0 The Court made clear what US lending libraries were already assuming, that once a first sale of a work had occurred, the exclusive right of distribution was \u201cexhausted\u201d and the purchaser could resell, or lend, the book without permission or control from the publisher.\u00a0 It was discontent with this well-established public policy that led Pat Schroeder, when she was president of the Association of American Publishers, to call all librarians pirates.<\/p>\n

Since public policy has always been on the side of library lending as a fundamental building block of democracy, publishers now find that the only way they can attack it, and try to develop an income stream they have never had before, is through DRM \u2013 technological controls that prevent lending e-books more than a set number of times.\u00a0 Like Pat Schroeder\u2019s rhetoric of piracy, this approach has been tried before, by the music industry.\u00a0 Record companies finally figured out that consumers would prefer not to spend their money for products that have their own obsolescence built in (unless the consumer pays again and again), and they abandoned the use of DRM.\u00a0 The publishing industry is entitled to try the same failed experiment if they like, but, again, they should not complain if consumers, in this case libraries, choose not to support the model.<\/p>\n

Taylor recognizes that the Harper Collins\u2019 model would cost libraries money they have never had to spend before \u2013 repeated fees to keep loaning content they have already purchased \u2013 and he helpfully provides suggestions about where that money should come from.\u00a0 He mentions and rejects the possibility that the publishers might forgo this new income stream.\u00a0 He would be happy to take tax money, but he realizes that this is unlikely.\u00a0 So instead he suggests that library branches be closed and librarians be laid off in order to free up the extra money.\u00a0 That\u2019s right; the core of his argument is that we should close libraries so that publishers can make more money. Of course, the libraries that would get closed or under-staffed are always those in places where libraries are most needed, in disadvantaged neighbors or at less wealthy colleges and universities.<\/p>\n

These libraries are, apparently, expendable if they cease to serve the narrow (and probably misconceived) interests of publishers at this particular moment in history.\u00a0 This kind of support, I expect, will not do Harper Collins much good; I can only hope that this naked self-interest and disregard for public policy and the general welfare will make Taylor\u2019s column what it should be, a rallying cry to libraries and those who support them in city halls, state legislatures and academic administrations to stand up against business practices that threaten their core missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Librarians have raised a pretty loud outcry (for librarians) about the new e-book pricing policy announced last week by Harper Collins, under which libraries would be able to loan an e-book only a set number of times before having to pay again to continue lending.\u00a0 This model seems unfair to libraries, especially because they would … Continue reading Did he really say that?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-rights-management","category-libraries"],"yoast_head":"\nDid he really say that? - Scholarly Communications @ Duke<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/03\/09\/did-he-really-say-that\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did he really say that? 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