Macmillan Embargo Update for 2/21/20
/Carmi Parker, ILS Administrator for for Whatcom County LIbrary System, reports the the following:
You may recall that in January, we published a financial impact analysis measuring how close we are to a tipping point where Macmillan begins to lose money on the embargo strategy.
We believe we have now reached and passed that point. The theory was this: if 10% of libraries suspend their purchases of Macmillan eBooks, it will “zero out” any new revenue that the embargo generates from libraries conducting business-as-usual.
In the 2017 IMLS Public Libraries survey, 7162 libraries recorded spending on electronic materials. As of this week, 889 of those libraries have suspended their Macmillan eBook purchases, for a total of 12.4%. What’s more, these libraries represent 14% of the $374 million total spent on electronic resources.
In other words, we believe the embargo strategy is now a losing proposition.
However, if your library is thinking about suspending the purchase of Macmillan eBooks, please do not let this stop you. The goal of suspending purchases is to get Macmillan to drop the embargo and restore equitable access to our readers at a fair price. We have not yet achieved those goals and every library who participates will make success more likely.
The libraries who have suspended purchases recently include the Ocean State Libraries consortium, serving the entire state of Rhode Island, as well as libraries in California, Massachusetts Ohio, and Texas.
The newly participating libraries include the following RF reported last week on the libraries in Ohio and Texas)
Plumas County Library (CA) 4 brances 18,800 populatin served
Newton Free Library (MA) 1 branch 88,900
Ocean State Libraries (RI) 49 branches 1,057,000
Of course, only Macmillan knows for sure what the effects of not purchasing have been. RF salutes the libraries taking a stand but hopes Macmillan (and all publishers) and libraries might all come together for a fruitful discussion of how we might move on to serve readers. Growing readers is after all in our joint interest. The current impasse might benefit Amazon, but few others are gaining anything.