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Originally Posted by Paperbackstash
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This doesn't sound too good to me. Looks like a perpetual license used to cost $65. Now they'll get a two year license for $55. This may represent an overall savings for the library - seems hard to believe to me, but I don't know the dynamics of library borrowing. But any such savings would come at the expense of customer satisfaction I'd think. I read a LOT of ebooks that are over two years old. Most of what I read is well beyond that actually. So does this mean that over the years, older ebooks may become scarce at libraries? The article does mention that existing perpetual license ebooks will still be honored. But it seems a reasonable conclusion that libraries might not be interested in obtaining older ebooks anymore. That would be a real shame when a customer discovers a current series they want to read, but the initial books of the series are two+ years old and possibly gone from the library now.
This new pricing model sounds like a real boon for publishers and a really raw deal for libraries (once libraries figure out that it's not just the new books that patrons want). But by the time the libraries figure it out, the new pricing model will be firmly entrenched and there may be no way of going back.
If I were a library, I'd ask for "$55 for a two year license, extendable to a lifetime license at anytime in the future, even after the two years is up, for an additional $10". I'm afraid that without a fallback like this, libraries may be cutting their own throats financially.