Like many local library systems, the Jersey City Free Public Library has delved into the world of digital lending, allowing patrons to download e-books, audiobooks, music, and even videos. Titles currently available on the site include The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Appeal by John Grisham, and Kidz Bop Gold. Downloadable media is protected by DRM, which means that patrons have to download either Adobe Digital Editions or the OverDrive Media Console, unfortunately counting out the most popular e-book reader, the Amazon Kindle. Regardless, it's a nice service that keeps the library in tune with a digital age.
The current system of lending e-books has come under threat from HarperCollins Publishers. Typically, a library pays for content, then can lend it out to one person at a time in perpetuity. With physical media, this period of time is limited by the endurance of the object; that is, how much usage can the book (or CD, or DVD) withstand before it becomes unreadable. At that point the library will remove the item from their collection and purchase a new copy. But digital media doesn't degrade in this manner; as long as the file can be read, the book can be lent out to patrons again and again, with no need for repurchasing on the library's part. As library sales can represent as much as 7 to 9 percent of a publisher's revenue, libraries not needing to replace titles is a cause of much concern to companies like HarperCollins. Their tactic is to limit the amount of times a particular book can be lent out, allowing only 26 checkouts before the digital media expires and must be repurchased. For some libraries this represents only a year of usage; the JCFPL allows up to 28 days per checkout so they would get about two years.
Librarians across the country have cried foul at what they view as a rather arbitrary restriction on the e-books they purchase. Having to license content instead of outright owning it leaves them open to price increases and content restrictions, while librarians from the Pioneer LIbrary System in Oklahoma have pointed out that a physical edition of a HarperCollins book can withstand a lot more than 26 checkouts.
Many librarians have vowed to boycott HarperCollins titles as long as this policy remains in place, while HarperCollins defended their actions in an open letter, stating, "we have serious concerns that our previous e-book policy, selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book eco-system, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors. We are looking to balance the mission and needs of libraries and their patrons with those of authors and booksellers, so that the library channel can thrive alongside the growing e-book retail channel."
For now, patrons of the Jersey City Free Public Library can still checkout digital titles from HarperCollins like Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Janet Evanovitch's Hero at Large. It just remains to be seen whether they'll ever see anything new added.
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