The eBook Study Group, alongside ReadersFirst, Authors Alliance, SPARC, and the Rhode Island Library Association, has officially released a “Joint Statement on the Publishers E-Lending Report: Defending the Library Mission, Protecting Taxpayers, and Restoring the Digital Book Economy.”
This statement is a comprehensive response to the recent Secretariat report commissioned by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Authors Guild.
The AAP’s industry-funded study attempts to blame public libraries for declining retail sales by relying on fundamentally broken data. By failing to understand how digital library consortia operate, their economists inflated library e-book availability by a factor of 48. They used this ghost inventory to manufacture a crisis and justify their ongoing campaign against fair library access.
Our joint statement sets the record straight. The real crisis in the digital book economy is not library lending. It is the predatory rental feudalism forced upon public institutions by multinational conglomerates. Our coalition dismantles their flawed economics, defends state-level fair procurement legislation, and highlights how exorbitant e-book markups harm taxpayers, independent presses, and library patrons alike.
Publicly funded libraries belong to the public, not to commercial publishing lobbies. We invite you to read our full breakdown of the AAP’s deceptive claims and join us in advocating for true equitable digital access.
Read and share: Joint Statement on the Publishers E-Lending Report: Defending the Library Mission, Protecting Taxpayers, and Restoring the Digital Book Economy.
I regret few things as much as what I squandered on buying, moving and stuiring tree corpses when medical tragedy me homeless at 51.
Utterly content to pick up holds twice a month, take duidabled transit to volunteer at local ,ibray twice a month.
all of america is structed to reap maximum profit.