It is Imperative That We Do Better At Communicating E-Book Pricing to Our Patrons

We are terrible at communicating what we do to the public. Yes some of it is because it is difficult to explain a lot of what we do. Even after 23.5 years on my local library board, my husband is still confused by some of the rules we have to follow because we are funded by tax dollars. But some of it is because we just go about our business quietly, and as long as no one ruffles our feathers, we stay quiet. 

Earlier this month, I wrote about how my library is using September-- National Library Card Sign-Up Month as a chance to share what the library is doing and its value to our citizens. We are focusing on what you get for your prepaid library card and not on tallying how many new cards we get. We have shifted our focus and we have already seen great results (such as a local brewery giving us $1 per glass of a special beer they made for us all month long). Our Executive Director has already given two very public speeches about our library, our values, and what we offer our community (such as our mission statement and strategic plan which you can see here).

Back to our HUGE problem of being bad at proactively communication what we do and why to the public-- who pay for our services. This has served us poorly in a variety of ways. For example, every time a dumpster of weeded library books show up on the internet, people freak out. And then we have a PR disaster as we have to go back and explain that collections are always added to and deleted from. And also remind people that some books need to be "retired," and no, they aren't good enough for "poor people."

Of course, the entire rise of paid political agitators actively trying to remove books from libraries has been exacerbated by us thinking if we ignored the obvious illegality of their argument that the "problem" would go away.

However, today I want to talk about another issue we have been too passive and silent on for too long and now it is out of hand-- ebook pricing and how we NEED the public's help in our fight to get fairer pricing and user models.

Let me back up for some context. I am constantly correcting people-- educated people, library users, readers-- who think that when we buy a book for the library we get it in all formats for one price. They assume we pay slightly more than them, but they think for that price we get all those copies they see in our collections.

Sigh. 

These are people who support the library and use our collections. They love getting their books for a prepaid value. They want more access to books and they would be appalled if they knew what was actually happening. They have no ideas that 1, we pay for every copy of the same book in every format and 2, that we are gouged on e-book and e-audio pricing AND that we don't even own them at those prices.

As a member of the Illinois Library Association Executive Board, I have been a part of an organized effort across a variety of states to use existing contract and consumer protection laws in each state to force publishers to be more fair in the money they charge us for e-books and e-audio. The key language here is coordinated effort. Publishers are fighting hard against these laws in every state, but we are all using similar language and avoiding FEDERAL law (because that infringes on copyright and was already shot down). This state-by-state approach that is focused on consumer protection is receiving more support from legislators and making it harder for the publishers to argue against us. Legislators want to give their constituents the best deal for their tax dollars, not fight to have their money wasted.

Here is the language ILA is using as part of our legislative agenda not his issue:

Equitable Access to Electronic Literary Materials Act
Restrictions placed on libraries accessing digital content have posed a challenge in acquiring and providing access to eBooks, as publishers often impose restrictive licensing and contractual terms.  Most publishers and eBook aggregators force libraries to acquire eBooks with licensing terms that make it impossible to meet library standard access and preservation missions. ILA will propose legislation seeking to change this through a new state law based on consumer protection, contract law, and contract preemption to regulate library eBook contracts with publishers.

This is the communication we have use to legislators about this issue.

However,-- and now it is time to bring it back to the beginning here-- we need to also work on how we communicate this issue to our card holders. E-book and e-audio access is one of the biggest selling points as to why people should have a library cards. Our patrons love the easy access and the library of materials they have at their literal fingertips. We hear it form them all the time and see it in our statistics as well.

So how can we share this complex issue more easily? Well, to start, NPR ran this 3 minute story recently (audio and transcript access are both at the same link). From the intro to that story:

AILSA CHANG, HOST: 

For years, libraries have complained that e-books are too expensive. They follow a licensing model rather than a purchasing model, meaning that librarians have to keep paying for those e-books. Now legislators in a handful of states are trying to build momentum behind a new approach. In Seattle, KUOW's Clare McGrane explains.

Yes these three minutes are just a tip of the iceberg. But, it does introduce the issue to our patrons very well. Post the NPR piece and more resources on your website. Here is a link to all of my posts on the topic as well. Reach out to your state library association and have them share the language they are doing on this issue and their resources to educate others. 

Just start talking about it. because as I said here, I really want September to not be about tallying how many new library cards you get and instead be about how many conversations you have had with your community about what the library offers.  And how we use their money to serve them is a conversation starter. When they are being fleeced fort he things they want, when they know the truth, they will get mad and advocate right alongside us. Once that happens, our legators will take action.