Kansas / OverDrive in Contract Talks

[John F]

"Kansas State Librarian Goes Eyeball to Eyeball with OverDrive in Contract Talks "

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/new...eball.html.csp

The above link was posted in another thread.

The main thing that bothers me is that if an agreement can't be agreed upon, the libraries would loose access to ALL the books they "licensed"; it seems extreme to me, and I'm surprised that Overdrive is willing to play that card.

[tubemonkey]

That was a very interesting read with behind the scenes insight. Libraries do have an ace up their sleeves. They can always tell OverDrive to take a hike and go back to physical books only. With such tight budgets, many libraries will not be able to absorb these price increases and will have no other choice but to drop OverDrive. Patrons may not like, but that's reality.

[John F]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

... Libraries do have an ace up their sleeves. They can always tell OverDrive to take a hike and go back to physical books only. ...

But it's a weak ace. To me, this sounds like the Nuclear option. Haven't libraries sunk large amounts into their licenses. Going back to paper books, their licenses would be revoked, and would require a huge reinvestment in paperbooks (and rebuying ebooks again when they want to start lending ebooks again).

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by John F

But it's a weak ace. To me, this sounds like the Nuclear option. Haven't libraries sunk large amounts into their licenses. Going back to paper books, their licenses would be revoked, and would require a huge reinvestment in paperbooks (and rebuying ebooks again when they want to start lending ebooks again).

What choice will they have? When the fees from OverDrive consume a library's entire budget for ebooks, where will they get the additional funds for content?

[John F]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

What choice will they have? When the fees from OverDrive consume a library's entire budget for ebooks, where will they get the additional funds for content?

I would like to see some chest pounding by ebook patrons/tax payers/legislators. Something that will bring to public discussion ebook library lending/licensing/copyright.

How about lawsuit and court order: 1) until this is worked out, all sales of books and ebooks is put on hold, 2) or how about a court order that temporarily does away with copyright. FWIW, IANAL, and I'm just throwing the idea out there.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by John F

But it's a weak ace. To me, this sounds like the Nuclear option. Haven't libraries sunk large amounts into their licenses. Going back to paper books, their licenses would be revoked, and would require a huge reinvestment in paperbooks (and rebuying ebooks again when they want to start lending ebooks again).

Overdrive might not like that, but don't you think publishers would probably be very happy with e-books not being available in libraries? Since some publishers already won't allow them, and HC is limiting them, I think they really really want to cut libraries out of the picture.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

That was a very interesting read with behind the scenes insight. Libraries do have an ace up their sleeves. They can always tell OverDrive to take a hike and go back to physical books only. With such tight budgets, many libraries will not be able to absorb these price increases and will have no other choice but to drop OverDrive. Patrons may not like, but that's reality.

Of course, Overdrive can do the same to libraries. It's not like they have another option for e-books.

It doesn't strike me that the library's argument (we have no money, this increase is too much) is any better than OD's (circulation has massively increased, raising our costs). So I imagine there will be some sort of reasonably negotiated deal.

[Barty]

Does it worry anyone that basically all libraries use ONE for profit company for their e lending?

[Fbone]

According to the State Library of Kansas website Kansans downloaded 230,944 audiobooks and 27,032 ebooks in 2010. As of today SLK has 7757 audiobook and 2452 ebook titles available on Overdrive.

http://www.kslib.info/skyways-root/K...20digest11.pdf

I cannot imagine what Overdrive will charge large circulating libraries in the next few years.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Barty

Does it worry anyone that basically all libraries use ONE for profit company for their e lending?

Yes, very much. OTOH, Libraries are NOT software developers. And while I'd love to see an Open Source solution, somehow I don't think that's on the horizon.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by John F

The main thing that bothers me is that if an agreement can't be agreed upon, the libraries would loose access to ALL the books they "licensed"; it seems extreme to me, and I'm surprised that Overdrive is willing to play that card.

How is OD supposed to give the library access to their content if the libraries no longer a customer? Should OD pay the DRM fees and other costs out of their own pocket?


The Kansas library budget is over $6 million IIRC. They just have to decide if they want to carve some space out of that to cover these fees or drop OD and go back to doing only physical media. Surely these fees and the fact that they're based on usage would have been in any agreement they made with OD in the first place.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Barty

Does it worry anyone that basically all libraries use ONE for profit company for their e lending?

There was talk awhile back of another service starting up, but I can't seem to find anything on it at the moment.




Supposedly if the contract is terminated OD is obliged to transfer a libraries content to another service provider, but who that would be or what it would involve I don't know.

[Piper_]

Our library uses Overdrive, MyiLibrary, and NetLibrary

With your [my city] Library card, ebooks and audio books are available through Myilibrary, OverDrive, and NetLibrary.

With Myilibrary and OverDrive, you do not need to set up your account at the library; you may register and begin downloading materials from anywhere that you have access to the Internet.

To access NetLibrary, you must first set up your account with NetLibrary at a [My City] Public Library computer.

Overdrive has the most titles, I think, but NetLibrary has better terms (10 out at a time, etc.)

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Yes, very much. OTOH, Libraries are NOT software developers. And while I'd love to see an Open Source solution, somehow I don't think that's on the horizon.

Problem is, opensource would be of little help here, since it is a service issue. You still have to have the content, the servers running the software, the network connections to allow the servers to distribute the content, etc. Plus you're also having to work with proprietary DRM systems, which I don't think most DRM companies would willingly let anyone have open source apps working with their products on that end of the deal. "Hey yeah, use our format to create files for others to use. Oh, you're not for profit? No worries, and we don't mind that you're basically laying out how our stuff works so people know how to get around it."

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by Piper_

Our library uses Overdrive, MyiLibrary, and NetLibrary

With your [my city] Library card, ebooks and audio books are available through Myilibrary, OverDrive, and NetLibrary.

With Myilibrary and OverDrive, you do not need to set up your account at the library; you may register and begin downloading materials from anywhere that you have access to the Internet.

To access NetLibrary, you must first set up your account with NetLibrary at a [My City] Public Library computer.

Overdrive has the most titles, I think, but NetLibrary has better terms (10 out at a time, etc.)

NetLibrary, which is really for audio rather than e-books, is rather sparse in terms of titles I'd like. They have a "manager" to download the audiobooks in CD-sized pieces, but it's so clunky that it's easier just to direct-download the books as one large file.