[Barcey]

According to information provided by the library, the Big Five, large publishers that provide about half the library’s books, charge libraries roughly 1.5 to five times the price average consumers pay for ebooks, and some stipulate they can be used only a certain number of times or over a certain period.

Interesting that she is including the statement that the library is only getting half of their books from the big five. Probably too subtle for the publishers to get the clue.

Bowles said the library would prefer a “hybrid model” with lower prices and no restrictions for a certain number of copies, adding that she understands the organization does need to “pay a premium.
“If Toronto Public Library is going to (need) 100 copies of an ebook, what would work for us is if we could buy 10 copies at a premium price of, say, $40 per copy, and we would have ongoing and perpetual access to those 10 copies,” she said.
“The 90 copies we would buy at a lower rate and those copies can expire in a year.”

A reasonable suggestion (for large libraries) that will never happen because it doesn't meet the conspiring publisher's goal of creating "friction" in ebook library lending. I think the libraries are just conceding that their budget won't sustain these prices so they have to give the conspiring publishers the "friction" they so desire. All they can do is educate the public so that the library patrons direct their anger at the appropriate party.

I hope that this means that the libraries will expand the Big Library Read program (http://biglibraryread.com/) to start promoting new Indie authors. It would be great to see them have an ebook from each genre in this type of program with unlimited loans (no waiting) for a two week period. They'd be helping to promote new quality authors and I think that would be more beneficial than promoting best sellers. Get readers to submit suggestions, get librarians to read and select the winners and work with the authors to setup the promotion.

The Star sought comment from all the publishers, but none was immediately available.

Not surprising, they were probably meeting to discuss if they should respond or not.