E-Books: Libraries and Publishers Armed for Showdown

With some publishers gathering steam to put a limit on the number of times the electronic version of a library book can be checked out, librarians may be getting ready to hit back. After all, Seattle Times book editor, Mary Ann Gwinn, argues, should taxpayers actually be asked to pay more for a book because it’s better loved? From Gwin’s Lit Life column:

Today we live in an age of instant printing and e-books. A lot of this is good — information is more accessible than ever — but it's terra incognita for libraries, publishers and authors. Hence the current debate convulsing the library world about mega-publisher HarperCollins' recent decision to limit the number of times library patrons can check out e-books to 26, a figure the publisher calculated is a year's worth of use. After that, the library would pay — again — for the right to circulate the e-book.

The full piece is here.