As I mentioned on Bluesky, I spent yesterday going back and forth to Springfield IL to support House Bill 5236—The Digital Library Protection Act. From the ILA page Advocacy page about HB 5236:
What is House Bill 5236?
The Digital Library Protection Act, as known as House Bill 5236, aims to prevent publishers from imposing unfair restrictions on libraries when licensing eBooks, digital audiobooks, and other electronic literary materials. It prohibits contracts that would prevent libraries from performing their usual functions, like licensing materials from other publishers, using necessary technology for lending, making preservation copies, or participating in interlibrary loan systems.
It prevents publishers from restricting a library's ability to determine loan periods, from charging libraries more than the public for the same item, or from limiting the number of licenses a library can acquire after an item is available to the public. The bill ensures libraries can continue to virtually share content for educational purposes and share licensing terms with other libraries in the state.
Before I get to my official statement in support of the bill, I wanted to share a very short recap on what happened yesterday.
We were appearing in a show of support for this bill to move from the Consumer Protection Committee to the floor of the IL House. We did move forward with a 6-3 vote. This results what our lobbyist said would be a huge victory (it means we got one republican to vote for us in committee).
But I need to thank all of you who filed witness slips because while the bills that went before us reported that they have 5-10 witness slips in favor we had over 2700! The committee was impressed. But I also need to share that the anti witness slips were from places like Penguin Random House, the Authors Guild, and the American Publishers Association, so we need all the support we can get, especially from you PATRONS.
They noted in the hearing that most witness slips supporting were librarians. As we move forward we need to see the public get involved.
Please go to this page to follow our progress and see how you can educate your patrons to speak out in support.
Right now our focus is on gathering the 60 votes we need from the IL House to pass this bill to the Senate. We need those in place and secured in 8 business days from today which is 4/9. (there are some closed dates around Easter).
What we need is for you to call your IL House Reps and talk to them about voting yes here. Now after the webinar tomorrow we will have updated advocacy scripts and advice. I will let you all know about that but it will all be here on the ILA's page with all of the info as linked above.
As my colleague Robin Bradford (and IL native) noted on Bluesky yesterday, "When you spend more money, your buying power shouldn't DECREASE. Someone is getting over like a fat rat and it ain't the people. Not the authors, either!"
Which leads exactly into the witness testimony I was asked to provide as Big 5 author, librarian, and trustee. It was officially filed into the record. I am sharing it here with all of you because no matter where you live, you can use this to advocate for this issue. In IL, I will be contacting reps outside of my district to speak as an author and as a former elected official myself. (Don't get me started as to how mad I am that the Authors Guild is against this bill, a bill which hurts every author, but they are doing what PRH tells them to do here. They are not fighting for us.)
CT has passed this legislation. We are moving to the House floor and NJ is right behind us. (which for me is poetic justice, the state I live in and the state I am from are leading the pack here.) If a few dominos fall, the Publishers will be forced to give up and make the rules fair for all libraries. Don't think for a moment what happens here in IL is not going to help every single library in the country. We are doing the work for all of you and we are happy to do it. I just wish Springfield wasn't 3.5 hours away. But with teamwork and carpools we made it happen. Again, check out the pictures here.
I hope to see of you at the webinar tomorrow as well.
My official witness testimony ends this post. Please feel free to quote me or just borrow the language to use for yourselves. And a huge thank you to Robin who provided the real time numbers for purchasing my specific book.
Submitted by Becky Siegel Spratford, Librarian, Author, and recently retired 24-year, elected Public Library Trustee for La Grange Public Library (Cook County).
I would like to thank the Consumer Protection Committee for giving me, and my colleagues from across Illinois, the opportunity to speak to you today about House Bill 5236—The Digital Library Protection Act. I am speaking to you in support of this bill and its aims to prevent publishers from imposing unfair restrictions on libraries when licensing eBooks, digital audiobooks, and other electronic literary materials.
I would like to begin by sharing my personal experience as the author of WHY I LOVE HORROR: ESSAYS ON HORROR LITERATURE which was published in September 2025 by Saga Press, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. The print version of my book retails for $18 while the physical CD of the audiobook is $34.99. Consumers can buy a digital copy of my book from Amazon for $13.99 and digital audio for $13.02, via Amazon.
However, if a library would like to purchase my book for their library collections the cost of the ebook is not only inflated to $59.99 for one use at a time, but also that purchase is only for 24 months. After that time, the book simply disappears from the library’s collection and must be re-purchased again for that same price with those same terms. The digital audio is inflated to $69.99, again for one use at a time, for only 24 months.
In my opinion, this is the definition of price gouging, and since libraries are using tax dollars to purchase books for their collection, the victims are our citizens, the very people this committee is responsible for protecting.
I want to be clear here, because I have been asked about this before, Simon and Schuster is not crediting my author account for sales dollars above and beyond the list price of my book when they make a digital sale at those inflated prices to a library. And again, unlike my print book, which can circulate as many times as possible, the libraries who purchase the digital versions of my book, only “own” them for 24 months from the date of purchase.
As of this writing, the print, digital audio, and digital ebook of my title are checked out from my library. But in less than 24 months from today, the print will still be on the shelf while the digital book and audio will disappear. Access will be denied to those who want to read it. As a librarian, I am not sure even if I would make the choice to reorder this book digitally at those prices, especially knowing the print is there for people— and let me stress, this is my book I am talking about.
Now, multiply this financial decision about my book by thousands because as you have heard from my colleagues today, my book is but one example of this extremely unfair and, quite frankly, unsustainable system.
However, my irritation and anger as an author and librarian is eclipsed by how unfair I know the current system is for our citizens. I worked tirelessly as an elected Library Trustee to give the citizens of La Grange, IL the most efficient and effective service for six full terms, from May 2001-April 2025. The current system puts Library Trustees between a rock and a hard place.
On my board we were regularly briefed on how popular our digital materials were, while we were also told about the price disparity between digital and physical copies. We always wanted to use our taxpayers’ dollars efficiently and effectively. We weighed the cost versus the need. We made sure the staff had access to enough money to give our patrons the titles they wanted, in the formats they wanted.
But even for a well-funded library like La Grange Public Library, this was not easy. We had to get creative with our budget and we even used grants to help bridge the funding gaps. Many of our fellow libraries across the state don’t have the financial resources we did, however, and their patrons (citizens who give their tax dollars for their library’s collections), are forced to go without digital access to many of the books they want to read in those formats.
As you can see, I am engaged with this issue from all sides. I care deeply about making sure readers have access to the books they want from the public library, whether I have written that book or not. I also want my book in the public library. I want readers to be able to find my book on the shelf, be that a digital shelf or a physical one. I am proud that people can find my book at their public library. But I am saddened that in order for a library to have my book, they have to pay through the nose, and even after making that choice and paying those steep prices, they don’t even have access to it after two years.
This is most unfair to the consumers. Yes, the literal consumer is the library here, but really, since we are using taxpayer dollars, the consumer is our citizens. Even worse, they have no idea that they are being price gouged.
As an author for one of the largest publishers, I also understand that we need to make money—the publisher and myself. But in the current price structure system, I am not making any more money, the library is paying a lot more, the taxpayers are being price gouged, and only the publisher is profiting.
I am so thankful that you are hearing testimony on this important issue. I hope my testimony can help you move House Bill 5236 on to the full House.
Thank you for your time and attention.
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