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The True Cost of eBooks and Audiobooks for Libraries

Written by Robert Roose, Support Services Director

If you’ve borrowed eBooks or audiobooks from the library in the past few years, you’ve been a part of the biggest change in Library lending in recent history. At Spokane Public Library, circulation of digital materials surpassed circulation of physical materials starting in 2023.

Given the popularity of eBooks and audiobooks, you may have wondered why the library doesn’t just buy more eBook or audiobook content to reduce hold wait times. When you personally want to buy an eBook or audiobook it’s often cheaper than the physical book, right? Well, for libraries it’s the opposite. Libraries often pay much more for digital copies than individuals do. Unlike print books, which often come with discounts, digital content rarely does. In fact, digital books can be up to three to four times the cost of physical books for libraries. Take Kristin Hannah’s popular book, The Women, for example. In order to buy enough eBooks and audiobooks to satisfy the hold list at the time of this writing, it would cost the library $21,718.

The average cost the library pays for a print book can range from $8–$30 and we get to keep that book in our collection forever (hypothetically) whereas the average cost for an eBook is around $40, and for an audiobook, it’s about $73, and we have to renew these licenses regularly. To maintain a varied collection, we aim to spend approximately $8,000 each week on digital books alone.

Since subscribing to OverDrive in 2012, which includes the Libby app (our primary eBook and audiobook platform), we’ve spent $3.3 million to buy or lease almost 87,000 copies. However, due to licensing terms that limit how long we can keep certain titles, we currently have just over 42,000 copies still available.

The portion of our budget allocated for OverDrive content alone makes up more than a third of our annual $1.5 million materials budget. We could invest even more, but the return would only temporarily meet demand before new requests come in.

Like most libraries, Spokane Public Library simply cannot afford to buy as many digital books as we need to meet the demand, but a great deal of thought and effort goes into balancing the budget and doing our best to supply the materials the community wants.

Why are audiobooks and eBooks so expensive for libraries?

Early on, book publishers had no idea how to price digital content which led to varying costs. In the early 2010s, we could purchase digital titles outright with no timeline restrictions.

Book publishers now use a licensing model for selling eBooks to libraries. We have to buy a license for each digital book title. There are many types of licenses, but the most common type is purchased and re-purchased every year to maintain access to that title. “The higher prices are assigned to libraries by publishing companies who fear unlimited access to eBooks would damage sales,” said Alan Inouye, the American Library Association’s executive director of public policy and advocacy in a 2023 article in Government Technology.

What’s being done to make digital content more affordable?

Efforts are underway to make digital content more affordable for libraries. Organizations like ReadersFirst and the American Library Association (ALA) are lobbying publishers for fairer terms and lower prices. However, libraries account for less than 2% of digital sales, so our influence remains limited. In an age of seemingly near-universal access to content on the Internet, libraries struggle to maintain a toehold in this realm.

What does the future of digital content look like for Spokane Public Library?

Libraries work hard to provide access for everyone. At Spokane Public Library, we are committed to evolving our services to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. That’s one of reasons libraries continue to stay relevant in the digital age. We know providing free access to both physical and digital books is invaluable to our customers, so we’ll continue to work on finding a balance.

If you’re interested in helping fund our digital collection, you can make a cash or check donation to Spokane Public Library and indicate that you’d like your donation to go toward our digital collection. Donations can be dropped off at any Spokane Public Library location.

How can you help us maximize the digital collection when you checkout eBooks and audiobooks?

  • Use the ‘Notify Me’ feature if we don’t have an eBook available to let us know which books are most popular amongst our customers.
  • Return items early when you can so more people can read the book while we have it.
  • When you see a hold available, check it out right away or schedule it to deliver later if you don’t have time to read it. Sometimes very popular titles have up to a third of copies sitting waiting for a customer to check it out.
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