Macmillan Announces an Extension to Content Use by Teachers, Librarians, and Parents

Macmillan has released the following news:

Macmillan Publishers announced today that it will extend its Content Use Guidelines for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents through June 30, 2021. 

Under the program, teachers and librarians can live stream or post videos reading Macmillan children's books to their students, and authors can livestream or post videos reading their children's books, provided it is done on a noncommercial basis. 

All educators, librarians, and parents who want to participate in the program can learn more here.

RF thanks Macmillan for its support of literacy in a difficult time!

PRH Extends its Storytime Permissions and Temporary Ebook Models

Penguin Random House has extended both its Story Time Temporary Permissions and temporary ebook models through to June 30, 2021, rather than just through March 31.

PRH-published ebooks and audiobooks are available in a 12-month term at 50% of the cost of the 24-month term option.

PRH-published ebooks and audiobooks are also available in a cost-per-circulation model at 10% of the cost of the 24-month term option.

These new models are offered in addition to PRH’s 24-month term for ebooks and One Copy/One User model for audiobooks.

Non-profit story tellers can use PRH titles virtually under an expanded agreement:

For Teachers, Educators, Librarians, Booksellers, and Other Qualified Individuals providing distance learning and read-aloud events:

• Story time or classroom read-aloud videos in which a Penguin Random House book is read aloud (including the reader showing pictures in the case of picture books) may be created and posted to closed educational platforms such as Google Classroom, Schoology, Edmodo, and Discovery Education, along with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, in order to replicate the read-aloud book experience that would otherwise be available to teachers and educators in the classroom, librarians in the library, and booksellers in the bookstores. Other qualified individuals are included, as long as the reading is not for profit.

Full information is available here.

The extension comes in response to the resurgence of the COVID pandemic, with accompanying concerns about attendance during the academic year and patrons’ ability to visit libraries in person.

RF again thanks PRH for promoting libraries’ ability to foster literacy in this difficult time!

PW Reports on the Potential Amazon/DPLA Content Sharing

Andrew Albanese of PW has further investigated Amazon Publishing possibly sharing its content with public libraries through the DPLA Content Exchange and SimplyE.

The article is well-wroth a read for providing more details, but here are some excerpts.

And in a call with PW, DPLA officials confirmed that a deal could be done soon.

"I don’t want to get too far out over my skis," said Michele Kimpton, director of business development and senior strategist for the Digital Public Library of America, when asked to characterize how close a potential deal was to completion. Kimpton told PW that talks with Amazon have been ongoing since spring, adding that the discussions have gone well and that the parties were making "good progress.” And while she expressed hope that Amazon titles could be available to libraries on the DPLA Exchange sometime in early 2021, she also tempered expectations, stressing there were still details to be worked out.

Such an agreement would be a major breakthrough in the library e-book market. Amazon currently does not make its digital content available to libraries under any terms—an exclusion that librarians have loudly criticized for years, and brought to the attention of lawmakers in an ALA report last year.

Speaking with PW this week, Kimpton further clarified the scope of the potential agreement. First and foremost, the discussion covers Amazon Publishing titles only (not titles from Amazon’s KDP program). The current talks also do not include Audible, Amazon's digital audio service, which does not make its exclusive content available to libraries. And while Amazon is heavily invested in a subscription model for books and reading (Audible, Kindle Unlimited) a subscription model for libraries has not been part of the talks. All titles under the potential deal would be licensed ePub editions managed by the DPLA and its partner libraries and made accessible to patrons via the DPLA’s SimplyE platform—meaning library users would not have to go through Amazon to access the titles.

If completed, a deal would be a major coup for SimplyE and the Digital Public Library of America’s growing e-book platform, the DPLA Exchange. After all, to license Amazon Publishing titles libraries would need to use the DPLA exchange, and patrons would need to deploy the SimplyE app to access them. Meanwhile, commercial vendors in the library e-book market contacted by PW declined to comment on the development, or whether they too were in talks with Amazon.

“We have been doing a lot of work around new licensing models that provide libraries with choice and provide patrons more reading material,” Kimpton says. “We have to get away from this process of hold queue after hold queue for e-books. We hope libraries will embrace these models, and we hope we can keep exploring new ways to get more books in the hands of patrons and off of this holds queue model, which is a waste of taxpayer dollars and a waste of library resources because too much work goes into managing [digital lends] rather than doing what librarians do best, which is create collections and develop relationships with their communities to promote reading.”

While some details remain to be ironed out, Kimpton said Amazon was on board with offering multiple licensing models. And while she declined to characterize Amazon’s broader approach to the digital library market, she stressed that as a library-based and library-centric nonprofit, any deal DPLA struck, with Amazon or any publisher, would necessarily align with core library values, including equitable access, and patron privacy.

ReadersFirst is greatly encouraged by these developments and by DPLA’s work to ensure content is shared according to best library principles. While we support the adoption of SimplyE, Amazon extending its content through all vendors is not unwelcome. Audible content eventually being added would be most welcome. Thank you to Amazon for considering working with libraries! If this were to result in terms that shared ebooks as DPLA has with some other publishers, this content could perhaps be one of the best deals for libraries.

DPLA Releases More Details About Their Conversations With Amazon

As reported recently in The Hill, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has been in discussions with Amazon to carry “original” content. Here is a statement from Michele Kimpton of the DPLA:

News emerged this week that, as part of DPLA’s work to expand access to digital materials, we have been in talks with Amazon Publishing about making their titles available to libraries through the DPLA Exchange. While these are just talks at this point, I wanted to take a moment to provide an update on this work.

At DPLA our mission is to maximize access to information and to ensure that in the digital age knowledge becomes more, not less, accessible. One way we work toward that is by expanding access to ebooks and audiobooks through the SimplyE ebooks platform, founded by NYPL, and the DPLA Exchange, a non-profit ebook and audiobook marketplace. The DPLA Exchange, paired with SimplyE, allows libraries to expand their digital offerings through a library-owned and managed solution to purchase, organize, and deliver ebooks and audiobooks. The DPLA Exchange helps libraries live up to their mission of providing access to knowledge and information for all. As the borrowing of physical books has been limited by the pandemic, many libraries have seen a 40 to 50 percent increase in digital lends, making clear that ensuring access to digital resources for everyone has never been more critical.

DPLA is committed to maximizing readers’ access to a diverse range of ebooks and audiobooks, protecting patron privacy, and putting libraries in control of selecting and curating content. Over the past year, we’ve worked with publishers such as Workman, Abrams, and IPG to develop a variety of licensing models that serve the interests of both libraries and authors. These include 40 x 10 concurrent, unlimited one-at-a-time, and 5 concurrent loans at 1/4 the price. In some cases, the DPLA Exchange offers up to three licensing models for a single book, which gives libraries the flexibility to keep one copy perpetually on the virtual shelf while lending out multiple copies of in-demand titles simultaneously. (See an example here.) We intend to build on this record of developing flexible licensing going forward, with Amazon and other publishers. 

As part of our work to expand access and grow the range of titles available to our partner libraries, we have been in discussions to make Amazon-published ebooks available to libraries and their patrons. We are excited about the possibility of enabling readers to access titles that previously have been available only for purchase. As Michael Blackwell of St. Mary’s County Library and Readers First wrote earlier this week, “If Amazon would provide the ebooks and perhaps audiobooks to launch through DPLA’s Content Exchange, which uses the open source SimplyE app, this could be a wonderful and important development for library readers.”

Any agreement we develop, with Amazon or anyone else, will, like our previous publisher agreements, be embedded in library values: access, equity, and patron privacy. Any titles made available to us will be made accessible in EPUB format through the DPLA Exchange and served to patrons via the SimplyE app. We are discussing an array of licensing models that would both be beneficial to authors and serve libraries.

We will share more information about this project when and if we come to an agreement. In the meantime, if you’d like more information about the DPLA Ebooks program, SimplyE, or the DPLA Exchange, please email me. You can also learn more about SimplyE and see a demonstration here. 

Best,
 
Michele Kimpton
Director of Business Development + Senior Strategist
Digital Public Library of America

DPLA’s ebook work is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 

RF is pleased to learn that the content (if a deal is reached) will be shared in a way that is built on our animating principles: eschewing a non-proprietary format, staying with the library digital space rather than sending readers to an outside agency, and so streamlining the transaction while merging the content with other a library might offer through SimplyE. We hope so success in these discussions and look forward to library readers have access to content they might otherwise miss. If the content could be offered in the full range of license options that DPLA has fostered with other publishers, so much the better.

Breaking News: Amazon and DPLA Talking About Sharing Exclusive Content

Librarians and their stakeholders have been pushing back at Amazon’s refusal to allow libraries to have access in ebooks (or with Audible, digital audiobook) to their exclusively published content. A reporter for The Hill, Rebecca Klar, in writing an article about library pushback has revealed that Amazon and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) have been in talks to share Amazon original content through the DPLA Content Exchange.

Few other details are available. It seems no deal has yet been signed. Any license terms have not been discussed. It is not certain yet if only DPLA is in negotiations or if other platforms (OverDrive, Bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, etc.) may also be talking with Amazon. It could be that DPLA’s non-profit status and (for now) more limited distribution of content via SimplyE is giving it an advantage. If an exclusive deal is struck, however, it could be advantageous for DPLA and the SimplyE platform. Amazon might also gain. The petition to “stop Amazon’s war on libraries” will be less forceful if Amazon works with libraries in an open source platform and content exchange both designed by and for libraries.

[Full disclosure: your humble author is the same Blackwell quoted in the article.] In a statement to The Hill, quoted only in part, I said this: “From a library perspective, it would be problematic to send our patrons directly to Amazon’s site, as currently happens when patrons access eBooks in the Kindle format through OverDrive. We like to keep patron information private. We also want patrons not to have to leave library digital space, so that the transaction is simple and seamless. If Amazon would provide the eBooks and perhaps audiobooks to launch through DPLA’s Content Exchange, which uses the open source SimplyE app, this could be a wonderful and important development for library readers.”

The devil will be in the details. Implemented properly, such a partnership would create good additions to library content. We have yet another reason for hope in 2021. If a good deal goes through, guaranteeing easy and private access at reasonable costs, RF will retract the various negative swipes it has made at Amazon over the years.

Amazon, please prove us wrong in our previous criticisms!

DPLA, this is exciting news. Wishing you every success!

Authors Guild to Audible: No Tags Back!

This matter is a bit outside RF’s bailiwick but of interest to those concerned with digital rights.

The Authors Guild is firing a warning shot across the bow of BMS (Bezos’ Majesty’s Ship) Audible:

“We are sharing with you a letter to Audible’s CEO Bob Carrigan and General Counsel Stas Zakharenko, demanding that Audible end its practice of encouraging its monthly subscribers to return or exchange audiobooks they have purchased and deducting the earned royalties for those audiobooks from authors’ accounts. Audible is promoting this easy exchange policy as a benefit to increase its subscriber base, allowing listeners to purchase and listen to entire audiobooks and then return them for a refund or exchange them for a new book—all at the detriment of authors’ earnings. This is not an exchange policy, but an unauthorized audiobook rental arrangement supported by authors’ reversed royalties, and it must stop.”

If interested, you may sign the letter/petition here.

RF doesn’t have stake in this game. The Authors Guild has been notably hostile to digital content in libraries, backing among other things Macmillan’s since abandoned “windowing” of content. Two cheers for them in this case, though. One feels bad for consumers. Like libraries, even they don’t own the digital content they buy. They must consume it under license. Unlike with print books, they can’t resell it and then buy more to support authors (or donate for a library book sale and share the good). And RF is not so sure the Authors Guild wouldn’t spike the used book market if it only could. On the other hand, a sale is a sale. (A license is a license? Nah, doesn’t work.) Picking an author’s pocket after she or he has collected the hard-earned for a book well done seems like the work of an unreformed Scrooge, a chiseler, a stingy stinker, A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave (give us this day our daily Shakespeare). Audible, call a different play!

Note to authors: however suspicious of libraries the Authors Guild might say you should be, at least we will never take back what you have earned.

It's a Problem Internationally

Johanna Anderson, a librarian in the U.K. notes that “a group of academic librarians, researchers and university lecturers . . . have compiled an open letter asking the UK government to urgently investigate the academic publishing industry over its ebook pricing and licensing practices.”

She avers that “The current situation is not working and it needs to change. Librarians are increasingly unable to provide the resources students, lecturers and researchers need.”

Over 500 librarians have written an open letter asking for action from Parliament.

RF expresses its solidarity with this effort and encourages its U.K. partners to sign on. We in the USA cannot, obviously, but we are asked to “feel free to copy our letter and to use it to lobby your leaders to do the same. This is a global issue impacting us all in the Higher Education sector.”

Because it is a global issue.

Dear Minister 

We are a group of UK based academic librarians, researchers, university lecturers and students writing to ask you to investigate the academic publishing industry over its pricing and licensing practices regarding ebooks.

The COVID-19 pandemic, where students and researchers have not been able to physically visit libraries and access paper books have brought the many market issues regarding ebooks sharply into focus as ebooks have become our only purchase option. As lockdown began in March we observed students borrowing as much of the print material that they needed as possible, but as libraries shut academic librarians then did their best to source digital versions.

Due to UK copyright law university libraries cannot simply purchase an ebook in the way an individual can – instead we are required to purchase a version licensed specifically for university use. Public policy to support education and research should support a healthy ebook market, but we in fact see the opposite:

• Frequently we find that academic books are not available to institutions to license as an ebook. Various estimates from the UK Higher Education sector estimate that only around 10% of academic titles are available to universities in electronic format (see this 2018 study from SCONUL for one example).

• Where ebooks are not available or are prohibitively expensive, copyright law disallows educational establishments from scanning whole books they own in print.

• If an ebook is available to license by a university it is almost always more expensive, and frequently significantly and prohibitively so. ebook costs for a single user only can often be ten times the cost of the same paper book. We see the monopoly created by copyright law being a root cause of these huge pricing differentials and no economic justification for it at all.

• Price rises are common, sudden and appear arbitrary. We can name at least two well-known academic publishers who raised the cost for a single-user ebook by 200% or more with no warning earlier this year.

• Licences of ebooks are often confusing for both staff and students, and frequently restrictive.

• Publishers can, and do, withdraw ebook licences previously purchased by a library and are increasingly forcing a new licence to be purchased annually for an ebook already in the collection. Academic titles in paper form are protected from this gross exploitation by publishers of library collections and budgets.

• Publishers are increasingly offering titles via an etextbook model, via third party companies, licensing content for use by specific, very restricted, cohorts of students on an annual basis. Quotes for these are usually hundreds, or sometimes thousands, times more than a print title, and this must be paid each year for new cohorts of students to gain access. This is exclusionary, restricts interdisciplinary research, and is unsustainable.

Given that much teaching will be conducted online this term, and university spaces will not be fully open, university librarians are once again examining reading lists and finding that much of the ebook content is either unavailable, or prohibitively expensive. The result is that many lecturers are now facing the prospect of having to design their teaching content around what reading is actually available electronically and what is affordable. I am sure you will agree this does not support a vibrant higher education sector producing world-beating research. 

The state of academic ebook publishing is also a public-policy issue.  A few key players monopolise the market and  with the lack of competition or alternative options, we can either pay the extortionate prices, or not purchase the ebooks at all –  the latter being the choice we increasingly have to pick as our budgets won’t cover the often exorbitant cost of ebooks. 

University library budgets are finite,  and are frequently prone to cuts. Most of us are bracing ourselves for further budget cuts this year as we wait for the extent of the impact of COVID-19  on our institutions to become clear. We have been “doing more with less” for years but there comes a point where there is just not enough money to purchase digital resources at their current prices.  This will inevitably have an effect on the quality of education and research in Britain’s universities.

With the new academic year only days away, we hope that you understand the urgency of this matter and will take imminent action to ensure that research, information and ideas are accessible to those enrolling in our universities. 

We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SIGNATURES 1-2675*

*please note – due to the volume of signatures being submitted we are adding them to the letter in batches. If yours is not currently visible, please be assured it will be added in due course.

Data use notice : The list of signatures on this open letter is NOT to be used for marketing purposes.

Amazon--Let Libraries Have Content

Fight for the Future has put together a petition asking Amazon to share its “exclusive” digital content with libraries.

Amazon is certainly powerful and wealthy enough to ignore petitions, but it is good to see attention being drawn to the corporate mega-giant’s snootering of library readers.

Please consider singing and sharing!

Amazon: Let Libraries Have Books!

Amazon, one of the biggest booksellers and publishers, is refusing to let libraries lend any ebook it publishes, or any audiobook it creates. During the pandemic, checkouts of ebooks from libraries are up 52 percent. But, Amazon is undercutting libraries and access to knowledge for those most in need.

Unfortunately, this behavior from Amazon isn’t surprising. They are the largest monopoly in the ecosystem of books, and their stranglehold gives them power to limit access not only to books and information, but to alter the perception of libraries in the industry. Because of Amazon’s outsized power and their maniacal collection of data to weaponize, the fights they pick are often fights they win.

But not this time.

Libraries are one of the most important institutions for access to information and learning in our country. Innovations such as ebooks and audiobooks are key to making human knowledge accessible. As Amazon’s monopoly over book publishing continues to grow, they are acting like libraries are an enemy. This has to stop. We must reject Amazon’s attack on libraries, and end their ability to hurt readers and authors alike.

Sign the petition today.

PETITION TEXT:

As a lover of books, diversity, and accessibility I demand the defense of our libraries, and the book industry, from Amazon.

With ebook lending up 52 percent during the pandemic, Amazon is trying to supplant library lending with its own pay-to-access Kindle and Audible systems. Because Amazon has a monopolistic stranglehold on the book industry, it has outsized power to cement its control of whether the public accesses books and information—and even what books and information is published. The time to act is now, before libraries’ relevance is cut off by Amazon.

Ebooks and audiobooks are not only an increasingly popular and convenient means of reading, they also represent a major step forward in accessibility. Accessibility isn’t nice to have, it’s a requirement for a just society. Ebooks are more accessible to those with disabilities or learning issues. They can be customized to become large print, or offer different fonts and line spacing that help readers with dyslexia. Ebook devices are often also easier for some who have physical disabilities to use. Audiobooks also serve accessibility needs for many people with disabilities.

I do not want to live in a future where a monopolistic corporation is the arbiter of information access and learning. We must step up and defend the libraries, readers, and authors of this country from a threat that could become existential. I support an antitrust investigation into Amazon and legislative action to preserve and expand library services, no matter what innovations come next.

Thank you.

#Empowering Libraries: Share Your Story

RF has received this request from the Internet Archive and encourages participation:

Share Your Story. Do you check out books from Internet Archive's lending library? We’d love to hear from you. As part of our #EmpoweringLibraries campaign, we're gathering testimonials about how free access to digital books impacts people's lives. Sharing your story will help us raise awareness about the importance of digital lending, which is currently under threat in a new lawsuit. You can fill in our Google form, or share a social media post, using the following as a guide:

As a librarian, I use @internetarchive to help my patrons locate hard to find books. Protect free access to digital books by joining the #EmpoweringLibraries campaign http://blog.archive.org/empoweringlibraries/

Mark Smith on the TSL Launch of SimplyE with DPLA Content

Mark Smith, Director and Librarian, Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSL), was interviewed by RF Working Group Member Micah May on TSL’s launch of SimplyE with DPLA content.

Read the full blog post here.

Here are some highlights to whet your appetite to check out the full post:

“Prior to launching our project, E-Read Texas, there was no attempt at a statewide approach to procuring e-books other than those that came as part of bundled e-resource purchases [just] a patchwork of local access and no unified platform for libraries.

Our efforts were frustrated by the lack of a common platform and the complications posed by selection, meeting common needs across library types and sizes, and other challenges. We opted for SimplyE because it provided a solution that integrated with the local library ILS to offer an easy mobile access to both the library-purchased content and what we could provide from the state library.

Our timing was great in that we rolled out thousands of new e-book titles to the state just before and during the pandemic so that we have been able to provide growing access to e-books. We selected the DPLA Exchange for these purchases because of DPLA’s [free] membership model and strong support for SimplyE. TSLAC staff and the selection committee agreed early in the process that we wanted to buy books with favorable terms such as unlimited and simultaneous use, which is typical of much of the content from DPLA and BiblioBoard. These materials are already being used by Texans all across the state and as we grow the number of libraries using SimplyE, that number will continue to grow.

In the larger e-book ecosystem, the discussion of the cost of e-books and publisher interests, while momentarily muted in the aftermath of the Macmillan reversal, will return. The more emphasis we can bring to collections with favorable publisher terms, the better for library patrons.”

The ability to deploy content across platforms, integrating locally licensed content with state provided content, makes SimplyE outstanding for bringing diverse systems together. RF will watch TSL progress with great interest. Congratulations to Mr. Smith and the librarians in Texas for enhancing the library digital content experience.