It's been an upbeat Public Library Association 2012 meeting in Philadelphia so far, with strong attendance, and a slate of great authors, speakers, and programs. But the issue of e-book lending has loomed large over the meeting. On Wednesday, March 14, prior to the opening general session at PLA, ALA president Molly Raphael was in New York, participating on a panel on library e-book lending at the Association of American Publishers annual meeting, a session that was reported to librarians to have been quite positive. PW caught up with a busy Raphael in Philadelphia yesterday following an afternoon session, to talk about that meeting, and get Raphael's take on the ongoing issue of library e-books.
At the opening session, incoming ALA president Maureen Sullivan told librarians that the discussion on library e-book lending that you took part in at the AAP annual meeting on Wednesday went very well—your impressions?
Yes, we got really positive feedback from [AAP president] Tom Allen and [AAP v-p] Tina Jordan, who asked to do the session, but also from lots of individual publishers who came up to us and said ‘we really needed this,’ and that the discussion was really important and gave them a much better understanding of the issues. The reaction was much more than I would have expected from people who just, you know, attended a session, and then left, so I thought it was really good. We were on right before the break and we were scheduled for 45 minutes but the meeting was ahead of schedule so we actually went for about an hour and 10 minutes and we still had to cut off questions. Everyone was very engaged, and really wanted to be able to talk through the issues, and, you know, this was a public meeting, one of the few times when publishers can get together and have these kinds of discussions. So, yes, it was very positive.
Coming out of ALA Midwinter, you and ALA staff has some meeting with publishers in New York. How were those discussions?
Those discussions were very good, too, because we were meeting with high-level people. We met with the CEOs at Macmillan and S&S, two companies that haven’t been lending e-books, so that told us that this issue was at a level where the CEO cared about it. You know, CEOs don’t do meetings that they can pass off. And, we talked about everything, about the issue of discoverability in libraries, about how people discover writers, and books, about how we push books—and we said we can’t push books we don’t have, bottom line. One of the things they were concerned about is how easy it is to download e-books, “friction,” is the word they used. So we learned things from each other, and each session was good for understanding the other side’s issues, the environment we each are in, and the kind of stuff we are dealing with.
Was it your impression that there was at least a will to lend library e-books, if not a way they are publishers are totally comfortable with?
Yes, I would say that everyone affirmed that they’d like to be dealing in the library marketplace, but what we heard was that there was not really a business model that worked for them. There was a fear of the whole piracy issue, to which we tried to convey that we’re partners with publishers in this, that we’re not the ones enabling this, we’re keeping stuff from being copied because of they way we manage it. There was also a real interest in the kinds of data libraries have, about library use and reader behavior, and so we committed to try to help them where we could to get some data to help them make some decisions. Even if we can’t do that nationally, through ALA, we’d like to help publishers gain some understanding of how important libraries are, especially in those communities where there isn’t a bookstore any more. How do people discover new authors, or move from one book to another? So, I think the meetings in January and early February were very important. We also had a chance to talk with those publishers who are working with libraries. We don’t just want to be out there with a stick, we want to recognize that a lot of publishers have been providing books to libraries from the beginning, so we met with Perseus and Random House, too.
Random House, meanwhile, has since created a new issue with its price increase for library e-books.
Yes, Random House has created a bit of a brouhaha—but I believe there is some real dialogue around that, that they are really listening to what we have to say about what this increase means in the library world, about our ability to provide these materials to people. And, we know this is a time of a lot of testing. So, we’re working as hard as we can to break the logjam, but at the same time, we don’t want to be so loud against some new ideas that people get gun shy about going forward at all.
It’s good news that Random House is at least in the game, commited to libraries?
Right, they are in the game. And, you know there was a huge outcry last year when HarperCollins came out with its 26-lend limit, and now, there are a lot of librarians saying, you know, this isn’t such a bad deal after all. There are a lot books we buy that don’t circulate 26 times. We buy a lot of bestsellers, but we also buy an awful lot of things are, well, not bestsellers. I think we are in a position now to be able to talk to those publishers who are trying to make decisions. We’ve really opened up channels of communication, and we’re pushing them. That’s a sea change from where we were before. And, you know, one of the interesting issues beginning to pop up is that some authors who are big supporters of libraries are discovering that their e-books are not available in libraries, and they are not happy about it. I think our next step is probably to look to authors. Authors can put pressure on publishers in ways that we can’t and some authors are interested in doing this. We’re not going to have a big rally cry around it, but we do think authors would like to know that their e-books are not available in libraries, and they can decide what they want to do.
I sense a lot of frustration among librarians over the e-book issue, especially in light of Penguin and Random House’s recent actions. You’ve put in a lot of hard work on this issue, so, how are you feeling?
Well, I have to tell you I feel a real sense of urgency. I totally understand how librarians are feeling. I was a front line librarian for a good part of my career, and I know what it is like when someone comes in and says “what do you mean you don’t have this book, it is in all the store!” But, I also know we are in a very uncertain and volatile time. We’re pushing for a solution, and I do think that publishers too now feel a sense of urgency to resolve this issue. I think we’re going to see some forward movement, but believe me I really feel for the people who are on the front lines right now, because they don’t want to wait for six months or more, they want it resolved now. Unfortunately, for publishers that’ a harder sell because they want to makes sure they are comfortable with their decisions. We can push, push, push, and we will, but I don’t know that we can move publishers as fast as we want to. But we’ve made the issue a higher priority, and I believe we’re moving them faster.
