One of the most common things we hear about our downloadable e-book and audiobook service (
Library2Go) is "why don't you have the titles I want?" While there are a lot of great books in Library2Go,
with more being added just for WCCLS cardholders all the time, there are certain titles we just can't get for you as an e-book.
This is because the digital book industry is in transition and book publishers have not yet decided how to handle digital library lending. In fact, a number of big publishers won't sell their e-books to libraries at all! Others choose not sell their e-books to OverDrive, the software vendor that powers the Library2Go service.
That's why we were excited to see a new initiative, called
Authors for Library Ebooks. This is a campaign to get authors to encourage their publishers to make e-books available to libraries. Oregon's own Ursula K Le Guin, along with Cory Doctorow and Jodi Picoult were the first three authors to sign on to the campaign. We are especially pleased to see an Oregon author making a stand on this issue.
Ursula recently wrote a blog post on e-books and libraries, with some interesting factoids about the current state of the industry. It's a short and interesting read and provides a little more insight into why we can't always get the e-books you'd like to see in Library2Go.
WCCLS has signed on to
ReadersFirst, a movement to improve e-book access and services to library users.
