Macmillan announced Tuesday that it will make its full catalog of frontlist e-book titles available to libraries via its public library e-lending pilot. The pilot program, which has been in place since March 2013, currently includes all Macmillan e-books more than a year old. The announcement means libraries will soon be able to license Macmillan’s full catalog, including new books on the day of publication, currently some 15,000 titles including imprints such as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Henry Holt.
In a statement, Macmillan president of sales Alison Lazarus said that after a year of experience with its current pilot, Macmillan officials now have “a better sense of the market” and “feel comfortable expanding our offering to our full catalog.”
Macmillan titles are made available on a one copy/ one user model and are licensed for two years or 52 lends.
The announcement comes after Macmillan expanded its program last fall to cover its entire backlist, and just weeks after Simon & Schuster announced that it too would make its entire catalog available for lending. S&S and Macmillan were the last two holdouts among the big five publishers in the public library e-book lending space.
