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HarperCollins to Offer Multi-User E-Book Access to Libraries

In a major announcement ahead of this week’s 2017 ALA Annual Conference, HarperCollins has agreed to make a selection of its e-book backlist titles available to public library users on a multi-user lending model, via Midwest Tape’s hoopla digital platform.

Starting in July, the publisher will make about 15,000 e-book titles available via hoopla, including works from bestselling authors like Neil Gaiman, Louise Erdrich, and Dennis Lehane. The agreement builds on a 2016 deal that made HarperCollins’ digital audiobook backlist available to library users on the hoopla digital platform. [UPDATE: other vendors too will be offering Harper titles via the model. See Below.]

[UPDATE: In addition to Hoopla, Library Ideas will also offer HarperCollins titles via its multi-user platform Freading, and leading vendor OverDrive will also offer the titles via its "Cost-Per-Circulation" model. In a statement to PW, a HarperCollins spokesperson said the model is to available "all distributors in the library channel." In addition, the publisher said it doesn't consider this a multi-use model. "Rather, its a 'one copy/one user' model, where libraries purchase each copy loaned to a borrower, and can loan the copies concurrently."

The net effect, however, is multi-user access. "Instead of libraries having to replicate the physical model in the digital world, where they buy a book one copy at a time, and only one person can use it, the Freading model takes advantage of the natural advantages of the digital age: having unlimited copies available," explains CEO Brian Downing the Library Ideas release (via InfoDocket). “Libraries have a great need for a flexible eBook service...For instance, to help a book club, a library would have to rush out and buy 7 copies of an e-book and perhaps never realize much demand again. Now, in effect, they are just leasing those copies."

"Libraries and schools that select content available under the CPC model will only incur a charge when a reader borrows a title," explains an OverDrive blog post.]