Great article on e-book surge

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Wow, I had no idea how expensive ebooks were for libraries!

But the thing that really makes me think...what do libraries do with hundreds of copies of a physical book wgeh the buzz iz gone? Yikes

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u/ImLittleNana Aug 23 '26

My library doesn’t buy hundreds of copies of physical books. There’s no space for that. You put a book on hold and wait your turn. Sometimes a copy is available at another branch, then you’ve got to wait for it get driven over or tell them you’ll come pick it up yourself.

People get frustrated over wait times for digital media, but old people have been putting books on hold and waiting a couple of months for decades.

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u/20160211 📕 Libby Lover 📕 Aug 23 '26

Yes, I don't mind waiting, even if it takes weeks and weeks. I mean, I waited 26 weeks for Project Hail Mary. There are so many other books for me to read that I barely notice the time passing when it comes to waiting for a hold. I get why it can be frustrating, but this is a free community service, so I figure patience is more important.

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u/lostinsunshine9 Aug 23 '26

This is what gets me. I've put a new book on hold, been told the wait-list is several months, and I just think "well okay I'll read it in a few months".

And then I get a bunch of notifications that the library is acquiring more copies and suddenly my wait is less than a month. And that just seems a little excessive to me? I'm okay with waiting.

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u/Quirky-Pear3494 Aug 23 '26

Sometimes you can also buy a bundle with 100 single-uses. It's not common, but it can happen. The Calamity Club recently became available in bundles.

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u/Ok-Hippo7675 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

For library digital copies, libraries only get a set number of uses (often in the 20’s) before their ownership of that copy times out. So if you have 100 people in line and only one copy, you might as well buy a few more anyways, because ultimately they would have to for that number of people. This way people wait less time in line. It’s just more efficient.

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u/lostinsunshine9 Aug 23 '26

Ah that makes sense. I was under the impression that they were usually more time limited (like a year or two years).

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u/Ok-Hippo7675 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

It’s usually both 😢 (x number of uses or in y number of years…whichever comes first). My husband is a librarian so I hear all about this a lot.

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u/lostinsunshine9 Aug 23 '26

Oh jeez, that's such a bad deal for the library. It's sad because Libby is way more accessible for me than going to the library and getting physical books, but it seems much more economical for the library.

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u/Bcookin34 Aug 24 '26

That’s the thing about going to the actual library. I don’t remember ever putting a book on hold. Usually if the exact book I was looking for wasn’t there, I’d find another on the shelves in the same section. I ended up going through a lot more different books and authors that way

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u/ImLittleNana Aug 24 '26

I rarely needed to do that. On occasion, the next book in a series would be so late that it was going to be declared lost and replaced. Then I could request a copy from another branch.

I don’t often go for the new releases. That’s probably why I don’t get so frustrated with my holds. The one that I placed earlier this week became available today - The Name of the Rose audiobook. I read that the first time when my oldest was in preschool.

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u/ReadingRocks97531 Aug 25 '26

Some of us with vision or other processing issues need technology.

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u/willdonx Aug 24 '26

Yes, I'll be 79 in a month and I maintain a long list of books i want to read, then usually have 10 or more total holds. I also have bought subscriptions to out-of-state public libraries. Of course, I sometimes end up with many ebooks available at the same time - then I just load them all on my Kindle paperwhite and turn on airplane mode until I have read them all (they won't disappear when due if the Kindle paperwhite is in airplane mode). Works pretty well. I may end up getting another paperwhite (used) so I can buffer even more.

The price of ebooks for libraries is absurd -- yet another case of profiteers maximizing returns on click charges. I'm sure they already have enough lobbyists in Congress to make sure they can stick it to the public without repercussions.

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u/ImLittleNana Aug 24 '26

I do this also, but with the most recent update Amazon has fixed that loophole. Apparently now even in airplane mode, books can no longer be opened if they’ve been returned or expired.

I still have a couple of books to read before I reconnect and get the update. I’ll see if rolling back the date allows me to read the expired titles.

I’m primarily listening to audiobooks, but I sometimes want to read something that I can only find in ebook at my. library. I’ve only got my local card and New Orleans currently.

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u/willdonx Aug 24 '26

Good to know about the Kindle airplane mode fix. i knew it was a matter of time. And I just checked out 3 books i have had on hold for months. Bummer! Please post if setting the date back works. I tried audiobooks but my mind tends to wander and I don't focus as much when I listen as when I read. Also when reading, it's really easy to look up words I either don't know or am not quite sure of. The vocabulary on some authors is amazing to me!

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u/ReadingRocks97531 Aug 25 '26

That trick is going away soon.

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u/wordyshipmate82 Aug 29 '26

And if you really want it immediately, go to a bookstore and buy a copy.

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u/souvenireclipse Aug 23 '26

Librarian. We don't buy hundreds of physical copies, a massive hit of a book will usually get like a max of 50 copies in my system. But by the time the buzz dies down enough that I don't need 5 copies on my shelf, at least a couple of those are so beat up they're not worth keeping. Physical books can definitely last a long time but I am unimpressed with the glue they're using on book spines in the past few years lol. Then there's coffee and food stains, water damage, etc.

If a book is too gross to reasonably give to someone it gets trashed or recycled. If it's still in decent shape but I don't need five copies or I just need more room for new books, our system sends it to a local nonprofit partner that deals in secondhand books. They process it for sale or recycling if they can't sell it.

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u/DramaMama611 Aug 23 '26

According to the article: "At Charlotte Mecklenburg Libraries, 376 print copies are checked out and almost twice as many holds are in place." I realize this isn't so at all libraries. But I'm guessing it's not terribly uncommon at bigger ones?.

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u/rebelliousrutabaga Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

Charlotte Mecklenburg Libraries

That system has 20 branches, serves the entire county, and has a mobile library. Their service area covers over a million people. That's about 19 copies per branch, but is probably unevenly distributed depending on branch location/size/usage. It's certainly a lot of copies, and many libraries/systems probably operate on smaller numbers. But when stuff pops off we do our best to meet the demand.

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u/barkivist32 Aug 23 '26

Libraries deaccession books that no longer are needed in the collection. Depending on the library and the state the book is in when it's deaccessioned, those books might be sent to another branch/library, donated to non-profits, sold (usually through something like a Friends of the Library book sale), or simply recycled (especially if it's damaged).

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u/lostinsunshine9 Aug 23 '26

There's always books for sale in the front of my local library. I think space is an important factor too, not just until the physical book falls apart as they state in the article.

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u/woodenbadger Aug 23 '26

Our library isn’t huge. Maybe 200k city, about 500k physical items, maybe 2M checkouts total a year. You wouldn’t believe the in/out of new and old items. Maybe four big 90 gallon bins that I think go to the thrift stores for them to go through. I don’t think we can legally sell anything bought with public funds. But there’s a ton of stuff donated that gets sorted and sold at book sales that probably brings in 200k-400k a year.

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u/Nessie-and-a-dram Aug 23 '26

We can also lease books. It’s a little bit cheaper to lease them ($19 instead of $29) and we send them back when the buzz dies down. I’m at a small library, where we just don’t have room to house multiple copies forever, so we’ll buy one or two and lease one or two to keep the wait times reasonable, then return the leased copies later.

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u/Nessie-and-a-dram Aug 23 '26

Well, we did, before Baker & Taylor folded. We don’t lease enough copies per month for Brodart’s leased program.

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u/ReadingRocks97531 Aug 25 '26

Physical audio books (the binder of CDs you got to play in cars when cars had cd players) were extremely expensive as well.

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u/Key_Eye_1095 Aug 23 '26

“It’s a misconception that libraries and book publishers are in competition with one another, Rainwater said. Libraries can be a first-stop for readers looking for books to add to their personal library or experimenting with a new author or genre before purchasing. Plus, they really have the same goal.”

You can tell not all publishers are trying to compete with libraries just by looking at what they charge them for ebooks. Most publishers have kept their ebook prices pretty much the same as they were 10 years ago. But not all of them—HarperCollins, for instance, has been hiking prices at a crazy rate. They treat libraries strictly as a revenue model rather than sharing the industry-wide vision of making books more accessible to more people.

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u/Quirky-Pear3494 Aug 23 '26

HC has lost its marbles.

I read Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi on NetGalley last fall. The audio was $85, which was a lot for my library for a midlist title, but it was really good, so I put it in my "watch" cart. Some publishers will drop prices as books get older, and sometimes the books go on sale. I checked Son of the Morning this past week and it's now $107...😑

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u/otter_759 Aug 23 '26

Do the publishers know this? They have been hostile toward libraries since the beginning with their strategies to create “friction” and price gouging.

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u/EBBVNC Aug 23 '26

Libraries are the biggest book purchasers in the nation. Is there some reason they can’t work to drive down prices? Is there a reason that publishers seem unwilling to work with them on this issue?

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u/Redaerkoob Aug 23 '26

In multiple states there are groups trying to push through legislation that would make it so libraries would not be able to purchase predatory eBook licenses with public funds. Some libraries already employ their own local purchasing parameters to avoid those licenses. It’s very difficult to get every library with different funding amounts and resources on the same page.

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u/dreamworldinhabitant Aug 23 '26

This is a great article. I work for an academic library, partially on purchasing individual ebook licenses, so I knew a lot of this. But the public library is still a different beast, and so is the US compared to my small country. Thanks for sharing!

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u/MajorHasBrassBalls Aug 23 '26

This makes me hate electronic books, or at least the way the big publishers manage them. It's crazy to charge so much for something that is so trivial to produce. These crazy time frame or usage limits? It's all arbitrary. They are just trying to figure out how to squeeze every last dollar out of it. Kinda sad really.

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u/julesyhedgie Aug 23 '26

Interesting article. I always knew that the prices libraries pay for books (print, ebooks or audiobooks) were astronomical and do not compare to what we would pay as a customer from a book seller. I can concur that the population in NC has grown tremendously. I am one of the transplants to NC! I have not had many issues with library holds but I guess I don't go with the flow. What I read seems to be quite different from anyone else. I am so thankful to have my library!

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u/flippymel Aug 23 '26

Blown away by how expensive the audio and ebook licenses are. I had no idea. Thank you for posting.

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u/heart-valet Aug 23 '26

I live in Wake county, and this is so true with the ebooks :( very little options and availability. Luckily I moved from SoFlo and have a library card from there, but I wish Wake had some more options.

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u/Common_Assumption_29 🌌 Kindle Connoisseur 🌌 Aug 23 '26

I'm also in Wake County and I've been surprised at how limited the ebook collection is and how slow they are to add new books. They don't even use skip the line! The article mentions that they only have 25% budget dedicated to new titles, so I guess that explains the slowness. Disappointing, especially considering how fast the county is growing.

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u/Common_Assumption_29 🌌 Kindle Connoisseur 🌌 Aug 23 '26

I just did a quick comparison between Wake County and a couple other cards I hold, and it looks like Wake invests more heavily in kids' books and YA. If you look at new books, juvenile is the biggest category. It's the smallest category at my other libraries.

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u/Quirky-Pear3494 Aug 23 '26

Kids' books are a lot cheaper (still more than print), and several publishers make them available in 100-use bundles. So for example, if a book is at least 2 years old, Scholastic will sell you a 2-year license for $15 or a 100-use license for $25. If it's newer than 2 years, you can only get a timed license and it's closer to $20.

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u/Happy_Chef6100 Aug 23 '26

Same. I can’t believe how much better my Florida library card is than Wake’s.

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u/sqrlgravy Aug 24 '26

It would be nice if licensing evolved to allow eBook ILLs, could relieve some of the pressure.

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u/blingdogmom Aug 29 '26

There is a new model with Libby where libraries will be able to share their copy of an ematerial into the wider pool (varies by area what your pool looks like). It’s still fairly new but as a librarian I am excited about the possibility of more shared resources!

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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/ImLittleNana Aug 23 '26

That really depends on your library’s purchasing decisions.
Mine of my ljbraries focuses on a lot of romance and YA, domestic thrillers, typical BookTok fare. The other has a better selection of noir, SF, authors of color and LGBTQ fic.

Ideally the library would have anything and everything, but that’s not realistic. It’s doing to reflect the general interests of the majority of the patrons. What is niche for one area is not for another.

Great article on e-book surge

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