Follow-Up to two ALA Sessions

Andrew Albanese from Publishers Weekly has a detailed post on “ALA Midwinter 2020: Macmillan CEO John Sargent, Librarians Spar Over E-book Embargo.”

Mr. Albanese objectively reviews the position from both Mr. Sargent and the librarians who came to question him.

In his talk, Sargent insisted the embargo wasn’t designed to “punish” libraries, but was an honest effort to correct what he sees as a troubling, emerging imbalance in the digital marketplace. To restore balance, Sargent told librarians, the publisher had basically two “levers” at its disposal: pricing, and availability. With library e-book prices already high, Sargent said Macmillan executives “did some math” and concluded that tweaking the availability lever seemed worth a shot.

Sargent added that the embargo will continue for now, that it was based in part on data collected from Amazon {probably incuding Amazon data from Kindle use in OverDrive], that librarians will not be able to see the data, but that Macmillan might be open to change at some point.

LIbrarians challenged the accuracy of Sargetn’s claims about the data results, dismissed the comparison of digital and print models, argued for improved access (especially for those with economic need), and suggested Macmillan should work with them on developing an effective license model.

Albanese closes with two points for thought:

. . . the session was useful. Not only did librarians get a better sense of what was motivating Macmillan to explore this change, librarians now have a better sense of what's happening in the market. Many librarians PW talked to said they shared the blame for not engaging the e-book issue with publishers more forcefully in the last few years. And librarians now recognize the broader challenge librarians face: Amazon.

And, as Texas State librarian Mark Smith noted at the end of the session, the embargo also presents an opportunity for librarians to think more deeply and creatively about the library's role in the marketplace.

"Why should librarians rush to develop a new model, to work with you, until we know also what the results of your experiment is going to be? Especially since we don’t see other publishers joining you at this point," Smith asked Sargent, toward the end of the session. "There’s a world of material in libraries besides Big Five content that is pushed by celebrity influencers. I just think that maybe the library community might take this opportunity to see, one, what influence libraries really have in the marketplace, and two what other options we have to provide reading material to our customers."

That last point is perhaps the most noteworthy takeaway of all.

American LIbraries also summarized the #EbooksforAll update session, with notes on ALA advocacy, how to quanitfy library marketing efforts, and a thought from Columbus Metropoloitan LIbrary CEO Patrick Losinski: “Losinski, CEO of Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library System, said Sargent’s Midwinter AMA session was positive first step and that more conversation will ultimately help both sides. “We are very decentralized as a profession on this,” Losinski said. “It’s one of the reasons the change we’ve been trying to advocate has been very slow.”

The time to unite is now!