On May 27, five public library organizations from the U.S. and Canada released a statement, addressing the Big Five publishers and digital platform providers, in response to e-book pricing models. The Association for Rural and Small Libraries, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, Canadian Urban Libraries Council, Public Library Association, and Urban Libraries Council all signed on to the letter.
The organizations urge publishers to negotiate usage-based e-book lending models as well as perpetual-use options. “Our organizations, representing the vast majority of public libraries in the U.S. and Canada, call on the Big Five publishers, as well as platform providers, to come to the table to work with libraries to identify and implement sustainable solutions, no matter the format,” the signatories state. According to a ULC spokesperson, the letter focuses on the Big Five because “many independent and small publishers have more flexible ebook terms, up to and including ownership in some cases.”
“Public libraries protect copyright and invest millions of dollars in curating collections that increase author discovery and promote titles and reading, and our book borrowers are book buyers,” the letter argues.
In a press announcement related to the letter, PLA president Brandy McNeil called on publishers to enable “equitable access” to digital materials, reminding them that “America’s public libraries are critical to digital discovery of authors and titles, as well as literacy builders and champions.”
Meanwhile, ARSL executive director Kate Laughlin stressed that e-book costs have “become unsustainable, and for many small libraries, impossible,” which limits the ability of patrons to borrow and read all titles.
And ULC president and CEO Brooks Rainwater wrote, “Publishers, authors, and public libraries should be partners, but with the exponential growth in digital content demand, libraries are unable to provide and sustain access under current licensing models.”
This joint action is the latest volley in libraries’ and publishers’ debate over digital licensing. Library organizations, concerned about annual operations budgets and federal funding, are lobbying policymakers, who have advanced e-book and audiobook legislation at the state level.
Connecticut Senate Bill 1234 became law exactly one year ago, while Illinois House Bill 5236, the Digital Library Protection Act, is making headway this month. Meanwhile, publishers question how much libraries spend on licensing and how authors receive compensation from lending systems.
Angela Goodrich, COO of the Urban Libraries Council, told PW that the five public library organizations seek “an open discussion that can get us to some sort of solutions. We do think we’re a growing market, but we need to get the pain points worked out” in order to sustain expansion. In many large, high-circulation library systems, she said, “we’re spending over 50% of our collections budget now” on licensing. “That’s exponentially larger than what we were doing eight years ago, and part of that is because e-books and audiobooks are more expensive than print books.”
Back in 2018, patrons were only beginning to adopt e-books, audiobooks, and digital platforms such as Hoopla and OverDrive. Since then, Goodrich said, “usage has exploded, and this is no longer new technology. The publishers have a well-established product,” and libraries now understand how to deliver digital products to patrons. “We want to be the asset we have been to the public,” she added.
The public library organizations’ concerns follow on the heels of the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild’s denunciation of the passage of Illinois HB 5236.
In a statement, the AAP and Authors Guild wrote that e-book legislation threatens to “infringe on the rights of authors and creators across creative mediums and limit their ability to earn a living from their craft.” The publishers and authors pointed out that library digital lending reached an all-time high in 2025, with 820.5 million digital checkouts recorded on Libby and Sora, evidence that “digital access thrives nationwide today.”
“In 2022 (the most recent year we have stats from IMLS), library expenditures on e-books and audiobooks in Illinois were less than 5% of total operating budgets, so the argument that e-books are straining library budgets doesn’t seem to hold any water,” the AAP and the Authors Guild wrote, citing operations budgets rather than collections budgets.
From the libraries’ perspective, digital licensing is a matter of industry-wide sustainability. “All of our organizations are coordinating to share information and plan next steps, so outreach can start with any one of us,” PLA president McNeil told PW via email. “We are looking for productive conversations that may take the form of a roundtable with key stakeholders, small focus groups, or similar that bring forward concerns and solutions.”
“We want everybody to be successful,” agreed Goodrich, who encouraged librarians to join the ongoing discussion at Ebook Friday, to be held in Chicago on June 26, at the start of the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition.
