Posted on October 24, 2019 at 8:11 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
When big publisher Macmillan announced restrictions on ebook licenses for new releases, libraries and their advocates condemned the move.
Now, one of the country’s busiest and highest-ranked library systems is taking action in response.
Officials at Washington state’s King County Library System emailed fellow library directors (as well as Publishers Weekly) to announce that they would no longer buy Macmillan ebooks.
Macmillan’s new policy limits libraries to buying just one ebook copy of new releases upon publication; for additional licenses, they must wait eight weeks.
Lisa Rosenblum, King County Library executive director, said in her email that the system doesn’t want wait times to extend longer than three months — and to keep that promise, the library would wind up buying several more licenses after the embargo expired than it would have under Macmillan’s previous policy.
Rosenblum also hopes that, since King County has been the top digital-circulating public library system in the country for five straight years, its decision will pave the way for a change in policy.
You can read the original post on Publishers Weekly, but we also recommend checking out the commentary on The Passive Voice’s repost as well, for differing views.
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Categories: Today in Books