Received the following question from reader Gary Young:
I was downloading an ebook from my local public library yesterday when I realized that I have no idea if that book will still be available for re-reading in one year or in five years.
Has anyone ever posted on how the contracts between a library and Overdrive are structured?
Does a library pay money to Overdrive for:
– a perpetual right to lend out each book?
– a time limited right to lend out each book? One year? Five years?
– the right to lend each book a fixed number of times (say to lend the book 500 times)?
It is also possible that there are a number of such options available, and each library selects an option for each book on a case by case basis.
To the best of my knowledge once they buy it it’s part of their library and they can go on lending it forever. That’s one of the objections Macmillan’s CEO has raised (they don’t have to replace copies as the wear out) as to why Macmillan doesn’t allow library lending/sales or their titles (the other being lack of ‘friction’ in getting them [the ease of checking them out from home]).
Here’s a blog post that quotes him about that and other things…
http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2010/03/ebooks-in-libraries-thorny-problem-says.html
Based on promotional material that used to be on OverDrive’s web site: libraries buy ebook just like physical books. So they own them forever, although in the long term any ebook format becomes obsolete (or at least they always have up to now) and if OverDrive closes down the ebooks are useless. Libraries also pay full list price for the ebook, which is now significantly less than before in many cases because of Agency pricing.
A corollary to your question would be what happens if Overdrive disappears? What happens to the ebooks/audiobooks the library has purchased since the only way to distribute the books is through Overdrive’s system if Overdrive decided to stop distributing?
Hey – actual librarian here.
Most libraries subscribe to Overdrive – it’s an annual subscription for so many books – no actual purchasing of books involved. We have perpetual access to the books that are part of our subscribed-to collection.
As to the questions above:
– a perpetual right to lend out each book?
Yep
– a time limited right to lend out each book? One year? Five years?
The library can lend the book as long as the book’s in Overdrive and they’re still subscribing to the service. Library customers get to borrow the book for 1-3 weeks (depending on the book and the agreement with the library). Once the time limit is up, the electronic file stops working.
– the right to lend each book a fixed number of times (say to lend the book 500 times)?
Libraries can lend it as long as we like – but only one customer at a time can check it out (unless the library has paid for unlimited use or something like that).
Hope this helps!
“Most libraries subscribe to Overdrive – it’s an annual subscription for so many books – no actual purchasing of books involved.”
I know for a fact that individual books can be purchased as there is a way for patrons to “donate” an ebook to their libraries collection. So maybe it works in more than one way? I belong to two libraries that use Overdrive. The first one has about 700 titles (some with multiple copies) and has added books to their inventory only once. The other adds hundreds of titles a month. If they aren’t buying copies then how are they adding titles while others do not? If it were a subscription deal then the libraries with many thousands of ebooks plus many thousands of audiobooks must be paying a ton of money. I know NetLibrary is a subscription deal, but I’ve never heard of Overdrive working the same way.
“Libraries can lend it as long as we like – but only one customer at a time can check it out (unless the library has paid for unlimited use or something like that).”
The individual library has a specific number of copies which it has “purchased” for use by it’s patrons. There is no “unlimited use”.
AnemicOak – Yep – there are different models of subscriptions. You’d need to go to the Overdrive website to read about them.
“There is no “unlimited use.” Sure there is – for example, my library had unlimited use access to The Maltese Falcon for the month of October (we had a month-long event around the book).
By “unlimited use” I mean that there wasn’t a set number of copies, and you didn’t have to wait for someone to check it back in before the next person checked it out.