The Nevada Capitol
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The chair of the Carson City Library Board on Monday asked lawmakers to help do something about the unreasonable amounts electronic publishers are charging public libraries.
Julie Knight told the interim Legislative Committee on Government Affairs five companies control the electronic versions of books and other materials and are now charging three times as much as they charge individuals who buy the materials in electronic form.
In addition, she said they no longer sell the materials but, instead, charge a licensing fee that has to be periodically renewed.
“It’s a dramatic shift in how the big five does business,” she said.
Knight said the cost of electronic licenses has tripled over the past nine years and, as a result, “maintaining electronic collections is becoming unsustainable.”
As an example, she said an e-book selling for $12 on Amazon would cost a library $45.
She asked lawmakers to do something to help libraries, adding that, in her opinion, what those publishers are doing is “unreasonable.”
She said Maryland tried a law that mandated those companies charge public libraries at the same rates they charge individuals but the state was sued and the publishers won even though the judge agreed with the goal of the legislation.
Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, urged her to take a look at the “price gouging” legislation authored by Attorney General Aaron Ford to see if that might apply. She promised to help find a solution.
Assemblywoman Selena Torres, D-Las Vegas, said that, as a school teacher, she knows the same thing is happening to schools when they purchase electronic materials. She said she supports trying to handle the issue for both schools and public libraries in the same piece of legislation next year.
But Assemblywoman Jill Dickman, R-Reno, said those publishers are losing sales when libraries can provide multiple readers with electronic books for free.
The committee is expected to take up the issue when it writes its final report in August.
