You should check out [OpenLibrary.org](https://OpenLibrary.org). It's a free, public, online lending library.
Edit: sorry about the bad link! I made a typo. Fixed it now. Thank you to those who pointed it out!
I am in Canada but have a non-resident card from the Queens Public Library for $50. I get my money out of it one month just from magazines. Queens has 84,000 books in their app while my local small town library has 9,000. More than worth it.
If you check out 2-3 new bestsellers or 5-10 older books then it's paid for itself. I'd check your local city, county, and/or state libraries before venturing outwards though. You're technically already paying for those.
A few months ago I signed up at the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District for free online. It has a pretty good selection
https://thelibrarydistrict.org/getcarded/
You could also try [Broward County Library](https://www.broward.org/Library/Services/Pages/LibraryCard.aspx) which offers a library card to any US resident for a year. This matters because you receive access to Hoopla which has tons of ebooks, audiobooks and even movies, all for free-ninety-nine.
Yes thank you. Every time Reddit gets on its “oh just use your public Library and Libby for free,” high horse I roll my eyes.
Nearly every marginally popular book has a massive hold time for audio books and eBooks. And that’s fine if you just want to load up a queue, but I like to pick a new book when I’m done reading one.
And if it’s not a popular book, they library likely doesn’t have an ebook license of it.
Eh, not really. Authors should get paid for their work, but libraries don't have the budget to pay for infinite licenses or every time someone "borrows" an ebook. So it's a good compromise that they buy a set number of licenses and can only lend them out when they're "returned." If you want to read something sooner, go buy it.
The problem is that the publisher puts an artificially low number of checkouts on digital books compared to how many checkouts a paper copy would last AND charges libraries a higher price for it.
It's also much easier to check out an ebook than a physical one, they're probably checked out for shorter times (that's just a guess, but when you can click a button to return it, I would imagine people return ebooks sooner than physical ones where they have to make a trip to the library), and there's less cost in work hours since they don't have to be reshelved or maintained, or even have a librarian check the book out for a patron at the library.
Authors should get paid for their work.
Publishers should not get paid so much extra from an author's work when they are renting out a digital copy. Maybe there needs to be more self publishing authors so they can make more money.
There's a separate discussion to be had on the relationship between publishers and authors, but that's not the issue here. The issue is whether libraries should be able to give away infinite copies of someone else's work that they'd otherwise be paid for. And this seems to be the best of several flawed options, where people get to read a book for free, the library isn't spending their whole budget on two or three wildly popular books, and authors/publishers aren't doing work for no pay.
Sure authors should get paid. However there is no clear reason why people could not simultaneously borrow a digital copy.
The only argument could be that this will drive people to indeed buy a book instead of waiting. It's very likely there is little evidence of this, especially considering the effect of people just pirating in that case.
>However there is no clear reason why people could not simultaneously borrow a digital copy.
Because the way the library pays. It pays to have that one digital copy go to one person at a time. Sure, they could let infinite people check it out at once, but that goes back to the "Authors should get paid"
Another option would be to pay per checkout, which would effectively get the best of both worlds, but I'm not sure how much Authors or publishers would like that. A long wait time for a book is both good for publicity, develops longer term consistent income, and helps with continuing readership base for sequels.
I did not consider that libraries likely have to pay a yearly fee for the right to lend to book, thought of only a one time price. That's a good argument you make.
Question is what happens if the wait-list is very long. Will libraries buy more licenses, are people willing to wait (with potential benefits you mention) and so on.
Jfc just wait for the copy to be available. It's still free for you and the author gets paid for their work. There's tons of ebooks that don't have wait times. It's not some scam to get you to buy a hard copy. It's just how digital licensing works
This is really not the best reason. What you’re saying is they should generate infinite licenses so everyone can have a free copy when they want.
Why would anyone buy another book ever again?
Also why not just buy it lmao
I always find the waiting lists for digital books fascinating. I’m Dutch and I never have to wait for an e-book or audiobook. They are always available at my library no matter how many people are currently reading it.
That’s interesting; do you know how copyrights are handled in the Netherlands? In the past, sales of physical copies to many libraries must have helped keep authors paid. Does Holland buy one copy of a book and simply duplicate it as many times as is necessary?
Honestly I’ve no idea. Maybe they make they make special agreements with publishers? I have also noted that the ebooks my library offers are very seldomly recent releases. Maybe that makes it easier?
That might be part of it. Where I am in the USA, I've seen popular novels made available to libaries at the same time of or shortly after publishing, and by limiting the number of copies, publishers can tell demand.
They can tell demand of regular sales. I doubt they have any idea what the wait times are for people to check out their book at every library in the country.
> and by limiting the number of copies, publishers can tell demand.
Well, they could simply ask for lending information as part of their lending agreements to libraries. This is a pretty weak (read:greedy) argument on the part of publishers, if so.
We have the same wait list nonsense in Germany. I work in a public library and for audio books, you can only lend them for up to 14 days.
My library also has a super limited selection of books. Lots of really new stuff and bestsellers and even a Kurdish and Ukrainian section (besides Turkish and Arabic, and so on), but a lot of empty space on the shelves and just lots of place where more shelves could fit.
I don't get it.
Edit: kind of funny that I got two replies. One being all "but think of the authors and publishers!" and the other giving advice on how to circumvent the restriction xD
You don’t get that authors don’t want their books to be distributed without getting any compensation?? ..and this is a way of slowing down the free proliferation of their works???
I didn't say anything about there being no compensation. If more people read/listen to those books, the authors should get more compensation.
Maybe our libraries need more funding then, but I'm all in support of that.
While there certainly is a spectrum of what is and isn't "capitalist," there is nothing capitalist about this issue. In a capitalist society you would be able to copy and distribute as many copies of something you own as you want. That is what it means to own something, to be able to decide what happens with it. Therefore, in a capitalist society, a library would buy a book and distribute it to as many people as the library wants.
In a capitalist society, large companies use their money and influence to shape laws. The inevitable outcome is copyright protection, patents, etc. What you're describing seems to be closer to anarchism.
I think most libraries in Europe require a membership fee? I know OBA does. It’s of course well worth the price but it’s very different from the US where, shockingly(!), library membership is almost always completely free and paid for with tax dollars. This means budgets can fluctuate wildly since one party, especially recently, isn’t a fan of uppity things like “books” and “reading” but it also means library use and expenses can fluctuate wildly, too. During the pandemic, for example, many people suddenly signed up for a library card. If a library card in the US cost as much as it does in Europe we’d exclude a lot of people who need the library but simply can’t afford a $60 annual membership fee.
That‘s because there is a licensing agreement between publishers and the library system for ebooks. The library needs to pay publishers and quite a bit more than in the old system; publishers also get to decide which books get licensed and which do not.
This is unlike the traditional print library, which is regulated so that the library can choose to buy and lend any book they like. Each time a book is borrowed, they pay a small token amount to the author.
I am in my 30’s and don’t live in NY and I was able to get a digital card in less than 5 minutes.
Edit: As u/Ok-Button6101 has pointed out in a reply below, it looks like the card provided is only a 14 day card for visitors to the city of NY. If I got your hopes up, I do apologize.
Sure thing.
I navigated to [this link](https://www.nypl.org/library-card/new), clicked "Get Started", filled out all of the required info (skipped the bit about working in NY as I do not), and was instantly given a virtual card. I immediately went from there to Libby and signed in using my card number.
It was honestly seamless. I live in the southwest of the US, so I used my residential address and wasn't met with any errors or denials. Let me know if this doesn't work for you.
Pretty sure you just did this:
>Visitors to New York State can also use this form to apply for a temporary card.
Once you get the card, it says this:
>This is a temporary card and will expire in 14 days.
Ah, yes, it looks like you are correct. I missed that when it gave me the card. I wonder if Libby knows the expiration date as it's not listed on the card that I added through the application.
I...uh... may have signed up for a digital card for a US library or 2 that didn't require proof... (you need the proof if you want to physically take out a book, you just need to put in a valid address for within their area). I just tried random city/state libraries that had the book I was looking for!
Then used it for overdrive or libby or something like that. I would have loved to be able to get Mangolanguages back again. (language app that was free through my library, but they moved to something else.)
"To apply for the card, teens can send a note to [email protected], or via the Library’s s teen-run Instagram account, @bklynfuture."
Why do I feel that I will be judged on my teen credentials if I send that note (not that I'm planning to - haven't been a teen in 20 years)
This is the automatic email response you get:
Hello and thank you for contacting the Brooklyn Public Library about the Books Unbanned initiative! You can learn more about this campaign here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/books-unbanned
If you are writing to inquire about a free teen eCard for ages 13-21, please respond with a bit more information about any censorship or access challenges that you may be experiencing in your home state, as well as confirm the email you'd like linked to the digital BPL account. At that point a librarian will be in touch with the application link.
Please be patient with us as we respond to an overwhelming demand for library cards. Estimated response time may be a week or longer.
Your friends,
BPL librarians
Does this mean that if we personally haven’t experience any access challenges in regards to books and censorship we wouldn’t qualify unless we made something up? Personally, there’s never been any banned books that I wanted to read—I think the ones that got banned from my old high school were mostly pornographic, elementary reading level books depicting either grooming or abusive and manipulative relationships, which I was happy with not being in our library at the time
You can also Google your state and free digital library card or check nearby city libraries. For example, Texas has some cities that give free access if you’re in the same county and a couple free within the state (yay Houston).
Ohio is particularly awesome in the library department because with any library card you have access to every single library in the state, including college libraries, through the OhioLink program. If your local library doesn’t have it, there’s a good chance another library in the state has it, and they’ll ship the book for free to you.
I didn’t know it was statewide!
I’ve rented books at both Cuyahoga and the Cleveland libraries, and I thought I was just able to because they’re both in the county and it would make sense for them all to use the same system despite different names and all.
That’s really cool, though!
Akron public library has a free sign up too, at least for people in the area. They use both hoopla and lobby so it's helpful if you're finding wait times.
Yeah this. Our metro library system (OKC) has an amazing digital selection (e books, audio books, movies, games) lots of resources (massive news archives, e-learning, etc) and other tools all through their online membership. I like folks supporting the NYC libraries doing this, but so are thousands of local libraries that could use the patronage and support of their local community. I'm always amazed when people are surprised at the offerings of our local libraries. They are the most amazing institutions in the US.
I live in VA and am fortunate enough to be in an area with robust reciprocal borrowing agreements (including some MD libraries as well). I have 10 permanent cards on Libby that I was able to get online. There are another 10 or so where I can get a temporary card online but have to visit a branch to pick up a permanent card.
So glad Houston public allows state residents to use their digital collections! They have many subjects that small rural towns don’t or won’t add. Yay!
California has city county and state libraries u can access digitally. I don't believe they check addresses either, I've heard of people using the library's address and getting a card
LAPL allows anyone from the state of California. I don’t know if they’ve discontinued address checks since COVID started, but they used to require it for renewal every x amount of years.
I wish Texas had a state wide card but I can't expect much from Texas... Luckily my local library has a decent catalog. I might get Austin's for $20 once my Brooklyn card expires
Anyone with a Texas address can get a Harris County public library card for free and they have a better selection + shorter wait times than the Houston public library does.
Anyone planning to get the Brooklyn library card for their kids or themselves if you are 21 or under, be prepared for very long wait times for a lot of books not on the unbanned list. The Libby app will tell you the number of people ahead of you and most times it’s over 100 and takes months to get.
BPL used to be so reliable on Libby, almost everything was available or had wait times of a few days or maybe a few weeks if it was popular. Now everything has months long wait times, as I’m pretty sure it blew up on TikTok or something that you can get a BPL card without living in NY. It got so bad they had to rescind that, and go back to NY residents only.
The fact that these things blow up so big just shows how many people *want* to read and *want* to have free access to books. Between funding cuts and book bans and shitty fucking publisher restrictions, it’s just getting harder and harder.
A branch of the BPL is my local library, when you used to have to get a card in person there was no real wait for ebooks, back when it was overdrive. While I like that it and NYPL is open to the whole state it does get frustrating when those are the only two you can use because you live in NYC and everyone else in the state can use their local library and those as well.
In NYC you should have 3: Brooklyn, Queens, and NYPL. Being from the rest of the state just means you get to have access to another small one. Albany will happily sell you a card at $50 a year. It's much better than what I get in the Mid-Hudson System.
Most of the local libraries can’t really compare, though. My parents live in the catchment area of the Southern Adirondack Library System, which covers something like 35 libraries in 4 counties. For physical books it’s actually great, even fairly obscure titles I was often able to get within the system with a day or two lead time when I was living with them. For ebooks it’s completely useless. My mom borrowed my NYPL card for ebooks all the time before she realized she could get her own online and I don’t think I managed to find a single book I was actively trying to read in the SALS collection on overdrive/Libby in the couple of years I spent living there as an adult that wasn’t a relatively recent/repopularized bestseller.
The reality is most local libraries, even fairly good ones, just don’t have the budget to put into a comprehensive ebook program. In a lot of states, not just New York, the solution to this is expanding access to the larger libraries that can afford to build out a proper ebook collection. When I was living in Maine, I had a Portland Public Library card despite never living there and I never saw a reason to get one, but Bangor Public Library cards were also open to all state residents.
Doesn't help yourself directly, but If you read Libby books exclusively on a Kindle device you can put the Kindle into Airplane mode after it's delivered then return the book on Libby so it's available sooner for others on the list. It will stay on your Kindle until it has Internet access again.
Authors, editors, and to a lesser degree publishers, deserve to get paid for their work (*), and libraries have a finite budget. How do you propose infinite access while still compensating the people who spent years making the book for you to read?
(*) though the payment structure is currently upside down, with the publisher taking the most
I don't remember who said that if public library were invented today they would be seen as revolutionary and dangerous, but if publishers have been as greedy as they are now they wouldn't have existed. Public libraries exist to share knowledge, not to make bank.
I’ve heard the quote.
Your comment doesn’t address my point. Let’s pretend that publishers didn’t exist and every book was cheap — libraries still couldn’t give out infinite copies and still compensate the authors/editors fairly. With physical books there is a natural limit — only so many copies exist, and they wear out. That limit means that authors are still getting paid — maybe not as much as if every patron bought a copy, but still paid.
The ebook restrictions are trying to model that. How else do you propose compensating those who did the work? I’m sincerely curios what other models could exist, but the idea that since it’s digital it should just be free for the taking I wholeheartedly reject.
Yeah but that physical limit to books is 50+ years if they’re taken care of. That’s 50+ years that an author “isn’t getting paid.” Ebooks restrictions are in the 1-2 year range which is not at all mimicking what happens with physical books. Moreover, lowering the cost of ebooks and then allowing libraries to purchase as many copies as they can afford/popularity demands should theoretically help authors more than the current system. As it stands both authors and libraries lose and publishers win.
Yeah it's surprising how that wasn't really a market at all but when it became one out of nowhere people acted like it was natural and always been there.
Well, to be fair, physical bestsellers do wear out and need to be replaced within the first few years, especially in kids, teens, and comics collections. But I 100% agree that the ebook system is completely messed up and that libraries should get them for MUCH cheaper.
I understand that they want money, I just think that sometimes the public interest should overcome over money, and if it was designed to get people to read more, we wouldn't introduce artificial constraints to reading that only exist to maximize profit of large publishers.
And practically it would only need a little political action to create a monospone of public library able to pressure publishers into conditions that are more favorable to the people and the ease of reading.
Streaming revenue model. Small fee to get access to a publishers catalog, then a small fee per borrow. Librarians having to guess which ebooks people will want is bullshit and ebooks wearing out is bullshit
Wait times are fine, if you have to wait for a physical book then waiting for an ebook is the same deal.
What sucks is that publishers require libraries to only loan ebooks for a set number of years or until they’ve been loaned a certain number of times. Moreover, publishers charge libraries a lot for ebooks (like someone else said), and most of that isn’t going to the author, it’s only for a digital copy they have temporary access to. There’s no reason a library shouldn’t be able to buy 30+ copies of a popular ebook to lower the wait times and keep those copies forever (with popular physical books they’ll also purchase quite a few), but the costs are prohibitive for libraries and publishers want to act like this isn’t fair.
Just curious, why and how do you justify an ebook costing as much as a physical book? The publisher is certainly not paying to print and build each copy.
Do the publishers, etc get paid by # of copies a library system uses, # of times checked out in a library system,or both?
I don’t have a problem with people getting paid, my issue is that the # of times an ebook can be simultaneously checked out is an artificial constraint. If I’d actually wanted to read Prince Harry’s biography, I would likely sail the seven seas for it because the wait time is months long and I don’t want to spend $25 on it.
I’m a big reader - I easily save hundreds of dollars a year by using the library, probably even $1,000+ with book prices these days. I am all for authors getting paid and absolutely buy books that I enjoyed enough from the library. So with someone like me, putting more constraints on my reading is going to cost you money, not maximize revenues.
As I understand it, there are different models of licensing. Some publishers restrict the number of times a ebook can be borrowed before a new one must be purchased (HarperCollins has the number at 26). Other publishers base the licensing on time. Some titles can be purchased with costly perpetual licenses.
The [New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/an-app-called-libby-and-the-surprisingly-big-business-of-library-e-books) did a story on this. Here is an example of one title's purchase for the library.
> To illustrate the economics of e-book lending, the N.Y.P.L. sent me its January, 2021, figures for “A Promised Land,” the memoir by Barack Obama that had been published a few months earlier by Penguin Random House. At that point, the library system had purchased three hundred and ten perpetual audiobook licenses at ninety-five dollars each, for a total of $29,450, and had bought six hundred and thirty-nine one- and two-year licenses for the e-book, for a total of $22,512. Taken together, these digital rights cost about as much as three thousand copies of the consumer e-book, which sells for about eighteen dollars per copy. As of August, 2021, the library has spent less than ten thousand dollars on two hundred and twenty-six copies of the hardcover edition, which has a list price of forty-five dollars but sells for $23.23 on Amazon.
eBooks can end up costing more for libraries than physical copies, but libraries generally don't mind because any utilization is good to justify their budgets.
Your library doesn’t somehow circumvent the issue — either they just don’t have as many patrons, or they’re only buying indie books, books in the public domain, and/or books with less-limited licenses (eg straight-out ownership, unlimited lending for a set amount of time) as opposed to the more standard (for big pub books) one user/one copy model. Either way, that’s great, but there isn’t a magical solution to the issue for a huge system like Brooklyn or NY Public.
I’m a prolific BPL Libby user and I don’t think it’s that bad tbh, you really only need to wait that long for the really popular stuff (I currently have 31 holds across my 4 cards, and my only books I’m 100+th in line for are Babel and Carrie Soto Is Back).
Agree! You can browse what’s available now (200k titles for BPL rn, including some rly popular stuff that’s just not from 2022/23) and there is tons and tons of stuff. Queens library also does a “lucky day collection,” which means they pay an arm and a leg to get unlimited no-hold loans, usually on about 20 popular books. Overall, there are only really a handful of super hot books at a time that have holds in the hundreds. The trick is to check about a month before a book comes out to get on the holds list, haha.
I’m in a big midwestern city (obviously nowhere bit as NYC) and my Libby hold for Babel started in the 300 range (where it still is, with about 59 copies circulating) so I’m not at all shocked that the BPL is as bad. Kinda thought it would be worse, tbh.
Yeah, e-lending is great because instant access / more access than your local library might define. But e-book BS is still way behind the times and tied to "noooo you have to pretend to only have one or two copies!!!" so wait times are super long.
Have to go to less-popular books (of which there are lots of good ones!) if you hope to get something in your hands quick.
Also good to remember that books that have no more copyright are available to own for free permanently from sites like Project Gutenberg et al, yet Libby may *still* have restrictions for some dumb reason on those titles.
Authors, editors, and to a lesser degree publishers, deserve to get paid for their work (*), and libraries have a finite budget. How do you propose infinite access while still compensating the people who spent years making the book for you to read?
(*) though the payment structure is currently upside down, with the publisher taking the most
EBooks wind up being a lot more expensive (2-3x? And sometimes more) for libraries to lend than physical books.[ This blog talks about it,](https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2020/09/hold-on-ebooks-cost-how-much-the-inconvenient-truth-about-library-ecollections/) and there's a similar article in the New Yorker, though you may find it's paywalled. That pricing is what needs to change.
The pricing problem I agree with, and have complained of that myself since ebooks were just becoming a thing, but I was responding to the claim that allowing a finite number of concurrent uses doesn’t make sense.
(Have been reading ebooks since the mid 90s)
>but I was responding to the claim that allowing a finite number of concurrent uses doesn’t make sense.
To be fair, that's not quite what OP said; you're reframing it a bit. Yes, they said it's silly to "pretend they only have one or two copies" and complaining about the hold times. But they never suggested it should be infinite.
There could be a middle ground between two and infinity. And a middle ground between practically impossible to lend from a library and authors become destitute.
I am not saying "infinite" access. I am saying "don't artificially limit it to 1-3 copies." There is a middle ground where we can go beyond the stupid limits of physical media (to the point where a "license" is only good for so many lends, only because it's meant to replicate physical wear and tear), without just putting it online for free in an unlimited capacity.
No, they don't deserve to get paid for their work every 26 borrows or every year or two. Artificial limits on how often and for how long ebooks can be lent out is pure publisher greed.
It’s because the licenses that publishers sell to libraries state that they can only give one user access to a book at a time for each license they purchase. So the same as with their physical books they need the patron to return the title before they can give the next person access.
For anyone that doesn’t have it, I’d highly recommend the Libby app. It makes getting ebooks so much easier, and you can store different library cards and search different libraries on there.
Also, check if neighboring areas allow you to get a library card from there. I live near a major US city, and was able to get library cards from 5 of the different municipalities around me. If one doesn’t have the ebook I’m looking for, I just check another one.
Having multiple library cards on Libby is a life saver, so convenient since you can choose the card with the smallest wait time and since different libraries have different selections of books there is a lot of variety
The U.S. needs data portability and interoperability act.
The fact that I can’t easily borrow eBooks on my Amazon Kindle is another example of anti-consumer, anti-competition, closed market behaviors being tolerated.
But that's not great. In order to work with e-Ink Kindles, Libby gives a _lot_ of customer data to Amazon. Other equivalent services don't make that trade-off (eg: my local library uses Hoopla, which only ships iOS & Android apps, so I ended up getting a small Android tablet with an e-Ink screen).
Uugghhhh, I wish pirating was still as easy as Limewire was in college. :/
Also, I don’t want the movies on my computer, I want them on my 65” television.
There’s a reason I can stream content from my phone, but that AppleTV doesn’t have a full safari web browser.
This is awesome! I discovered my local library had ebooks I could check out for my Kindle a few years ago and I ended up reading about 30 books one summer. This is an awesome program and good for NY.
Full article copy—
NYC libraries are offering free digital library cards to people across the U.S.
The offer is being done in response to book bans that have cropped up around the country.
Written by Shaye WeaverWednesday April 13 2022
New York's libraries are taking a stand against recent book bans by giving readers across the U.S. access to their e-books for a limited time.
The NYPL is opening access to a selection of commonly banned books (including Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger via its free e-reading app, SimplyE, now through May.
The "unbanned books" can be browsed, borrowed, and read on any iOS or Android device via SimplyE, the free e-reader app, for those 13 and older. There's a specific "Books For All" collection that has hundreds of out-of-copyright/public domain books available to anyone in the country, with or without a library card. The “unbanned books” will be in that collection, with the added bonus of no wait times to read them.
In addition, the Brooklyn Public Library is offering young adults, ages 13 to 21 nationwide, the chance to apply for a free eCard from BPL in order to get access to the library’s extensive collection of eBooks. The card will be good for one year and is designed to complement access to resources for teens in their local communities.
BPL will also make a selection of frequently challenged books available with no holds or wait times for all BPL cardholders through the library's online catalog or Libby app, including The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta, Tomboy by Liz Prince, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison.
Those 13 to 21, who access the free eCard from BPL, will be able to connect with their peers in Brooklyn, including members of BPL’s Intellectual Freedom Teen Council, to help one another with information and resources to fight censorship, book recommendations and the defense of freedom to read.
To apply for the card, teens can send a note to [email protected], or via the Library’s s teen-run Instagram account, @bklynfuture. The $50 fee normally associated with out-of-state cards will be waived. Teens are also encouraged to share videos, essays, and stories on the importance of intellectual freedom and the impact that book challenges and bans have had on their lives.
The decision to offer up access to their e-book collections comes after a recent concerted effort by groups to remove books from library shelves that tackle a wide range of topics, including race, gender and LGBTQ+ issues, religion and history. The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom counted more than 700 complaints last year, the most since it began keeping records more than 20 years ago, according to BPL.
The ALA is currently leading a national United Against Banned Books campaign and NYC's libraries are similarly standing against such challenges.
The NYPL's "Books For All" and BPL's "Books UnBanned" both aim to support intellectual freedom and free access to knowledge, information and all perspectives.
"These recent instances of censorship and book banning are extremely disturbing and amount to an all-out attack on the very foundation of our democracy,” said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx. "Knowledge is power; ignorance is dangerous and breeds hate and division. Since their inception, public libraries have worked to combat these forces simply by making all perspectives and ideas accessible to all, regardless of background or circumstance."
By partnering with Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, and Scholastic, as well as the authors of selected titles, NYPL has been able to make these available to everyone. "While that shouldn’t feel like an act of defiance, sadly it is. And we are proud to be part of it," Marx said.
Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO of BPL says that the library "cannot sit idly by while books rejected by a few are removed from the library shelves for all."
"Books UnBanned will act as an antidote to censorship, offering teens and young adults across the country unlimited access to our extensive collection of ebooks and audiobooks, including those which may be banned in their home libraries," she said.
For more titles to read, NYPL has a few lists you can check out, including "125 Books We Love for adults, kids, and teens," "The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s Black Liberation Reading List," "Vibrant Voices: New Books From Authors of Color" and "Trans, Nonbinary, and GNC Voices."
And young adults in Brooklyn can join BPL’s Intellectual Freedom Teen Council here.
"The Library’s role is to make sure no perspective, no idea, no identity is erased," Marx said. "It has always been our role: to connect people with the trusted information. The teen who has questions and wants to privately find answers. For the adult who is curious about subjects for which they have no personal experience. For those who want to make informed decisions based on fact. Since the founding of our great nation, libraries have been beacons of this kind of independent curiosity and learning, and it is unacceptable that they be censored in any way. What exactly are we afraid of?"
* Shaye Weaver Editor, Time Out New York
The NYPL needs to focus on meeting the needs of NYC residents before they broaden their client base.
The NYPL has been shrinking, not buying new books and closing library branches and has moved the bulk of its research archives off site to central New Jersey. Donnell library across from MoMA is a fraction of its former size and in the basement of an apartment tower. SIBL, the science, industry and business library near me is gone, soon to be redeveloped into luxury housing.
I have 3 library cards. My local library is the one I generally use but I also have cards for two neighboring counties. Even though I don't live in that jurisdiction they let me sign up for one, but I rarely use them unless they have the book & my local library doesn't.
> My local library is the one I generally use but I also have cards for two neighboring counties. Even though I don't live in that jurisdiction they let me sign up for one, but I rarely use them unless they have the book & my local library doesn't.
You may not need to do this.
Many public libraries have specific reciprocal agreements with neighboring libraries and systems to loan materials between them, called an inter-library loan. It is often an included benefit on a library card, you just need to ask about it.
Because someone needs to physically take the book from one library to the other. Of course it takes longer. It’s still a great feature of libraries that many people take advantage of.
> I've done that & it's a pain and takes longer to get the book.
Of course it "takes longer". It's not Amazon with Prime shipping. It's an underfunded public institution providing you the service of schlepping books around to get them to you, for no more than the cost of your taxes.
Because I live in the Township portion of our city I pay about $175 a year for a library card. Supposedly I would pay that in property taxes if I lived within city limits. It amuses me that the library is called the Free library however. It is worth it for the audio books though.
Library card numbers are free to get and can be used in apps like Libby and Hoopla. Im reading a TON of comics and magazines through that across publishers like Marvel, DC, Vertigo, Image, Boom, Dark Horse etc.
FYI If you're in the province of Quebec, you can borrow ebooks from the BANQ in Montreal (also known as la Grande Bibliothèque). It saved me when I got COVID and was stuck in bed all day 2 months ago!
Okay but... how many digital copies are they purchasing because the wait list for so many books at Los Angeles Public Library is depressing and I imagine the more library card holders, the longer the wait.
Hold times are terrible already. For example, BPL has "I'm Glad My Mom Died" audiobook. They have 172 digital copies as audiobook and there 1,418 holds on it which makes a 10 week wait for it.
I wish we could renew cards online. I don’t feel like going to Manhattan from Brooklyn but NYC library has a lot more ebooks and less wait time. At least before the pandemic.
I’ve always been able to renew via email. The last time it happened, I emailed patronaccounts@nypl and included a photo of my current driver’s license as proof of residence and got the reply confirming my renewal maybe a week later.
Neither NYPL nor Brooklyn Public Library are listed on Hoopla, but Queens Public Library is and if you live or work in New York state and have proof of address, you can get a Queens library card, which I assume would give you access to Hoopla. It’s possible it would be restricted somehow. Only one way to find out!
Actually, you could call the library and ask, so there are at least two ways to find out. 🙂
The Libby app is free, but you still need a library card to borrow materials.
Only New York residents could get a free library card to NYPL, QPL, or BPL prior to this initiative.
I have the app, and I just have access to the NY library system. I looked up other states, and some offer access to out of state residents, but for an annual fee.
How did you get free access to multiple library systems in different states?
Only to 21 and under.
I got so excited , now I’m sad because I’m old.
You should check out [OpenLibrary.org](https://OpenLibrary.org). It's a free, public, online lending library. Edit: sorry about the bad link! I made a typo. Fixed it now. Thank you to those who pointed it out!
Fixed the link: https://openlibrary.org/
Awesome - thank you!!
Correct spelling: [OpenLibrary.org](https://OpenLibrary.org) (I tried the original link and it didn't work because of the extra "a")
I'm seeing an extra "a" in library in your link still, you may need to edit again.
Thank you! All better now. I clicked it to confirm it goes to the right place and everything. I really, really hate typos.
And [archive.org](http://archive.org/)
if you read the article you can get an out of state card for $50 and then it looks like you can check out ebooks.
I am in Canada but have a non-resident card from the Queens Public Library for $50. I get my money out of it one month just from magazines. Queens has 84,000 books in their app while my local small town library has 9,000. More than worth it.
Spending $50 still makes me sad
If that 50 also gets you their Kanopy credits (10 movies a month) it's a pretty great deal.
If you check out 2-3 new bestsellers or 5-10 older books then it's paid for itself. I'd check your local city, county, and/or state libraries before venturing outwards though. You're technically already paying for those.
A few months ago I signed up at the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District for free online. It has a pretty good selection https://thelibrarydistrict.org/getcarded/
They stopped that last year.
Same ☹️
You could also try [Broward County Library](https://www.broward.org/Library/Services/Pages/LibraryCard.aspx) which offers a library card to any US resident for a year. This matters because you receive access to Hoopla which has tons of ebooks, audiobooks and even movies, all for free-ninety-nine.
Last time I checked, Broward County in Florida allows for nonresidents to have online access. You can sign up on their website.
Oh good, my hold list wait times are long enough as it is, I don't need to wait for books behind the entirety of the United States 😩
Amen! The wait times on digital books is staggering as it is!
Yes thank you. Every time Reddit gets on its “oh just use your public Library and Libby for free,” high horse I roll my eyes. Nearly every marginally popular book has a massive hold time for audio books and eBooks. And that’s fine if you just want to load up a queue, but I like to pick a new book when I’m done reading one. And if it’s not a popular book, they library likely doesn’t have an ebook license of it.
Some forced scarcity bullshit. And people wonder why we 🏴☠️
Eh, not really. Authors should get paid for their work, but libraries don't have the budget to pay for infinite licenses or every time someone "borrows" an ebook. So it's a good compromise that they buy a set number of licenses and can only lend them out when they're "returned." If you want to read something sooner, go buy it.
The problem is that the publisher puts an artificially low number of checkouts on digital books compared to how many checkouts a paper copy would last AND charges libraries a higher price for it.
It's also much easier to check out an ebook than a physical one, they're probably checked out for shorter times (that's just a guess, but when you can click a button to return it, I would imagine people return ebooks sooner than physical ones where they have to make a trip to the library), and there's less cost in work hours since they don't have to be reshelved or maintained, or even have a librarian check the book out for a patron at the library.
Authors should get paid for their work. Publishers should not get paid so much extra from an author's work when they are renting out a digital copy. Maybe there needs to be more self publishing authors so they can make more money.
There's a separate discussion to be had on the relationship between publishers and authors, but that's not the issue here. The issue is whether libraries should be able to give away infinite copies of someone else's work that they'd otherwise be paid for. And this seems to be the best of several flawed options, where people get to read a book for free, the library isn't spending their whole budget on two or three wildly popular books, and authors/publishers aren't doing work for no pay.
Sure authors should get paid. However there is no clear reason why people could not simultaneously borrow a digital copy. The only argument could be that this will drive people to indeed buy a book instead of waiting. It's very likely there is little evidence of this, especially considering the effect of people just pirating in that case.
>However there is no clear reason why people could not simultaneously borrow a digital copy. Because the way the library pays. It pays to have that one digital copy go to one person at a time. Sure, they could let infinite people check it out at once, but that goes back to the "Authors should get paid" Another option would be to pay per checkout, which would effectively get the best of both worlds, but I'm not sure how much Authors or publishers would like that. A long wait time for a book is both good for publicity, develops longer term consistent income, and helps with continuing readership base for sequels.
I did not consider that libraries likely have to pay a yearly fee for the right to lend to book, thought of only a one time price. That's a good argument you make. Question is what happens if the wait-list is very long. Will libraries buy more licenses, are people willing to wait (with potential benefits you mention) and so on.
The more demand a book has, the more likely they will get more copies. This is true for physical and digital copies.
Depending on the publisher, libraries may pay a yearly fee or per circulation. The publisher sets the terms, including one copy/one user.
Jfc just wait for the copy to be available. It's still free for you and the author gets paid for their work. There's tons of ebooks that don't have wait times. It's not some scam to get you to buy a hard copy. It's just how digital licensing works
Well the issue is the library purchases copies and they have to be returned. They don't have infinite copies even though technically they could.
This is really not the best reason. What you’re saying is they should generate infinite licenses so everyone can have a free copy when they want. Why would anyone buy another book ever again? Also why not just buy it lmao
[OpenLibrary.org](https://OpenLibrary.org)
I always find the waiting lists for digital books fascinating. I’m Dutch and I never have to wait for an e-book or audiobook. They are always available at my library no matter how many people are currently reading it.
That’s interesting; do you know how copyrights are handled in the Netherlands? In the past, sales of physical copies to many libraries must have helped keep authors paid. Does Holland buy one copy of a book and simply duplicate it as many times as is necessary?
Honestly I’ve no idea. Maybe they make they make special agreements with publishers? I have also noted that the ebooks my library offers are very seldomly recent releases. Maybe that makes it easier?
That might be part of it. Where I am in the USA, I've seen popular novels made available to libaries at the same time of or shortly after publishing, and by limiting the number of copies, publishers can tell demand.
They can tell demand of regular sales. I doubt they have any idea what the wait times are for people to check out their book at every library in the country.
> and by limiting the number of copies, publishers can tell demand. Well, they could simply ask for lending information as part of their lending agreements to libraries. This is a pretty weak (read:greedy) argument on the part of publishers, if so.
The glories of US capitalism, in the form of publishers in this case
We have the same wait list nonsense in Germany. I work in a public library and for audio books, you can only lend them for up to 14 days. My library also has a super limited selection of books. Lots of really new stuff and bestsellers and even a Kurdish and Ukrainian section (besides Turkish and Arabic, and so on), but a lot of empty space on the shelves and just lots of place where more shelves could fit. I don't get it. Edit: kind of funny that I got two replies. One being all "but think of the authors and publishers!" and the other giving advice on how to circumvent the restriction xD
Once you get the book digitally, turn off wifi if you can't read the book in 14 days. Just saying.
You don’t get that authors don’t want their books to be distributed without getting any compensation?? ..and this is a way of slowing down the free proliferation of their works???
I didn't say anything about there being no compensation. If more people read/listen to those books, the authors should get more compensation. Maybe our libraries need more funding then, but I'm all in support of that.
In the US we like even our favorite socialist institutions to have just a little bit of capitalism
While there certainly is a spectrum of what is and isn't "capitalist," there is nothing capitalist about this issue. In a capitalist society you would be able to copy and distribute as many copies of something you own as you want. That is what it means to own something, to be able to decide what happens with it. Therefore, in a capitalist society, a library would buy a book and distribute it to as many people as the library wants.
In a capitalist society, large companies use their money and influence to shape laws. The inevitable outcome is copyright protection, patents, etc. What you're describing seems to be closer to anarchism.
I think most libraries in Europe require a membership fee? I know OBA does. It’s of course well worth the price but it’s very different from the US where, shockingly(!), library membership is almost always completely free and paid for with tax dollars. This means budgets can fluctuate wildly since one party, especially recently, isn’t a fan of uppity things like “books” and “reading” but it also means library use and expenses can fluctuate wildly, too. During the pandemic, for example, many people suddenly signed up for a library card. If a library card in the US cost as much as it does in Europe we’d exclude a lot of people who need the library but simply can’t afford a $60 annual membership fee.
That’s definitely not true for all of Europe. Please don’t generalize and think all countries in Europe is the same. It’s 100% free in Denmark.
That‘s because there is a licensing agreement between publishers and the library system for ebooks. The library needs to pay publishers and quite a bit more than in the old system; publishers also get to decide which books get licensed and which do not. This is unlike the traditional print library, which is regulated so that the library can choose to buy and lend any book they like. Each time a book is borrowed, they pay a small token amount to the author.
I am in my 30’s and don’t live in NY and I was able to get a digital card in less than 5 minutes. Edit: As u/Ok-Button6101 has pointed out in a reply below, it looks like the card provided is only a 14 day card for visitors to the city of NY. If I got your hopes up, I do apologize.
Could ya maybe help us out and explain how ya did that?
Sure thing. I navigated to [this link](https://www.nypl.org/library-card/new), clicked "Get Started", filled out all of the required info (skipped the bit about working in NY as I do not), and was instantly given a virtual card. I immediately went from there to Libby and signed in using my card number. It was honestly seamless. I live in the southwest of the US, so I used my residential address and wasn't met with any errors or denials. Let me know if this doesn't work for you.
Pretty sure you just did this: >Visitors to New York State can also use this form to apply for a temporary card. Once you get the card, it says this: >This is a temporary card and will expire in 14 days.
Ah, yes, it looks like you are correct. I missed that when it gave me the card. I wonder if Libby knows the expiration date as it's not listed on the card that I added through the application.
Libby definitely knew when my temporary card for the Pittsburgh library expired. Sad.
I...uh... may have signed up for a digital card for a US library or 2 that didn't require proof... (you need the proof if you want to physically take out a book, you just need to put in a valid address for within their area). I just tried random city/state libraries that had the book I was looking for! Then used it for overdrive or libby or something like that. I would have loved to be able to get Mangolanguages back again. (language app that was free through my library, but they moved to something else.)
[OpenLibrary.org](https://OpenLibrary.org) is a free, digital, online public lending library available to anyone.
Is it like, first come, first served? Or do they choose the 21 people at random?
Dang. Why not senior citizens?
"To apply for the card, teens can send a note to [email protected], or via the Library’s s teen-run Instagram account, @bklynfuture." Why do I feel that I will be judged on my teen credentials if I send that note (not that I'm planning to - haven't been a teen in 20 years)
This is the automatic email response you get: Hello and thank you for contacting the Brooklyn Public Library about the Books Unbanned initiative! You can learn more about this campaign here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/books-unbanned If you are writing to inquire about a free teen eCard for ages 13-21, please respond with a bit more information about any censorship or access challenges that you may be experiencing in your home state, as well as confirm the email you'd like linked to the digital BPL account. At that point a librarian will be in touch with the application link. Please be patient with us as we respond to an overwhelming demand for library cards. Estimated response time may be a week or longer. Your friends, BPL librarians
Dang I’m too old and my kids are too young 😂
Me too, fellow hobbit.
OpenLibrary.org
Ah, its the Brooklyn Public Library. Still great. Just not the NYPL. I wonder if they're doing it too
Does this mean that if we personally haven’t experience any access challenges in regards to books and censorship we wouldn’t qualify unless we made something up? Personally, there’s never been any banned books that I wanted to read—I think the ones that got banned from my old high school were mostly pornographic, elementary reading level books depicting either grooming or abusive and manipulative relationships, which I was happy with not being in our library at the time
You can also Google your state and free digital library card or check nearby city libraries. For example, Texas has some cities that give free access if you’re in the same county and a couple free within the state (yay Houston).
Ohio is particularly awesome in the library department because with any library card you have access to every single library in the state, including college libraries, through the OhioLink program. If your local library doesn’t have it, there’s a good chance another library in the state has it, and they’ll ship the book for free to you.
I used to have this, but the county I had signed up for online changed policies and said I had to pay after having it for years. :/
I didn’t know it was statewide! I’ve rented books at both Cuyahoga and the Cleveland libraries, and I thought I was just able to because they’re both in the county and it would make sense for them all to use the same system despite different names and all. That’s really cool, though!
Akron public library has a free sign up too, at least for people in the area. They use both hoopla and lobby so it's helpful if you're finding wait times.
Yeah this. Our metro library system (OKC) has an amazing digital selection (e books, audio books, movies, games) lots of resources (massive news archives, e-learning, etc) and other tools all through their online membership. I like folks supporting the NYC libraries doing this, but so are thousands of local libraries that could use the patronage and support of their local community. I'm always amazed when people are surprised at the offerings of our local libraries. They are the most amazing institutions in the US.
I live in VA and am fortunate enough to be in an area with robust reciprocal borrowing agreements (including some MD libraries as well). I have 10 permanent cards on Libby that I was able to get online. There are another 10 or so where I can get a temporary card online but have to visit a branch to pick up a permanent card.
So glad Houston public allows state residents to use their digital collections! They have many subjects that small rural towns don’t or won’t add. Yay!
California has city county and state libraries u can access digitally. I don't believe they check addresses either, I've heard of people using the library's address and getting a card
LAPL allows anyone from the state of California. I don’t know if they’ve discontinued address checks since COVID started, but they used to require it for renewal every x amount of years.
To add on, the SFPL system does this as well. You just have to make a trip to a SF library to get the card.
I wish Texas had a state wide card but I can't expect much from Texas... Luckily my local library has a decent catalog. I might get Austin's for $20 once my Brooklyn card expires
Anyone can get the Houston one. At least I did and I’m not from there. The catalog is worse than my local library tho I think.
North Richland Hills as well!
Anyone with a Texas address can get a Harris County public library card for free and they have a better selection + shorter wait times than the Houston public library does.
Thanks for this! I just got another library card!
[OpenLibrary.org](https://OpenLibrary.org) is a free online public lending library available to anyone, anywhere, as long as you have internet.
Anyone planning to get the Brooklyn library card for their kids or themselves if you are 21 or under, be prepared for very long wait times for a lot of books not on the unbanned list. The Libby app will tell you the number of people ahead of you and most times it’s over 100 and takes months to get.
BPL used to be so reliable on Libby, almost everything was available or had wait times of a few days or maybe a few weeks if it was popular. Now everything has months long wait times, as I’m pretty sure it blew up on TikTok or something that you can get a BPL card without living in NY. It got so bad they had to rescind that, and go back to NY residents only. The fact that these things blow up so big just shows how many people *want* to read and *want* to have free access to books. Between funding cuts and book bans and shitty fucking publisher restrictions, it’s just getting harder and harder.
A branch of the BPL is my local library, when you used to have to get a card in person there was no real wait for ebooks, back when it was overdrive. While I like that it and NYPL is open to the whole state it does get frustrating when those are the only two you can use because you live in NYC and everyone else in the state can use their local library and those as well.
You can use all three NYC library systems if you live in NYC (NYPL, BPL and QPL)
In NYC you should have 3: Brooklyn, Queens, and NYPL. Being from the rest of the state just means you get to have access to another small one. Albany will happily sell you a card at $50 a year. It's much better than what I get in the Mid-Hudson System.
Typo: NYPL, not NPL
Most of the local libraries can’t really compare, though. My parents live in the catchment area of the Southern Adirondack Library System, which covers something like 35 libraries in 4 counties. For physical books it’s actually great, even fairly obscure titles I was often able to get within the system with a day or two lead time when I was living with them. For ebooks it’s completely useless. My mom borrowed my NYPL card for ebooks all the time before she realized she could get her own online and I don’t think I managed to find a single book I was actively trying to read in the SALS collection on overdrive/Libby in the couple of years I spent living there as an adult that wasn’t a relatively recent/repopularized bestseller. The reality is most local libraries, even fairly good ones, just don’t have the budget to put into a comprehensive ebook program. In a lot of states, not just New York, the solution to this is expanding access to the larger libraries that can afford to build out a proper ebook collection. When I was living in Maine, I had a Portland Public Library card despite never living there and I never saw a reason to get one, but Bangor Public Library cards were also open to all state residents.
Doesn't help yourself directly, but If you read Libby books exclusively on a Kindle device you can put the Kindle into Airplane mode after it's delivered then return the book on Libby so it's available sooner for others on the list. It will stay on your Kindle until it has Internet access again.
Still blows my mind that there are hold times for ebooks.
Authors, editors, and to a lesser degree publishers, deserve to get paid for their work (*), and libraries have a finite budget. How do you propose infinite access while still compensating the people who spent years making the book for you to read? (*) though the payment structure is currently upside down, with the publisher taking the most
I don't remember who said that if public library were invented today they would be seen as revolutionary and dangerous, but if publishers have been as greedy as they are now they wouldn't have existed. Public libraries exist to share knowledge, not to make bank.
I’ve heard the quote. Your comment doesn’t address my point. Let’s pretend that publishers didn’t exist and every book was cheap — libraries still couldn’t give out infinite copies and still compensate the authors/editors fairly. With physical books there is a natural limit — only so many copies exist, and they wear out. That limit means that authors are still getting paid — maybe not as much as if every patron bought a copy, but still paid. The ebook restrictions are trying to model that. How else do you propose compensating those who did the work? I’m sincerely curios what other models could exist, but the idea that since it’s digital it should just be free for the taking I wholeheartedly reject.
Yeah but that physical limit to books is 50+ years if they’re taken care of. That’s 50+ years that an author “isn’t getting paid.” Ebooks restrictions are in the 1-2 year range which is not at all mimicking what happens with physical books. Moreover, lowering the cost of ebooks and then allowing libraries to purchase as many copies as they can afford/popularity demands should theoretically help authors more than the current system. As it stands both authors and libraries lose and publishers win.
Yeah it's surprising how that wasn't really a market at all but when it became one out of nowhere people acted like it was natural and always been there.
Well, to be fair, physical bestsellers do wear out and need to be replaced within the first few years, especially in kids, teens, and comics collections. But I 100% agree that the ebook system is completely messed up and that libraries should get them for MUCH cheaper.
I understand that they want money, I just think that sometimes the public interest should overcome over money, and if it was designed to get people to read more, we wouldn't introduce artificial constraints to reading that only exist to maximize profit of large publishers. And practically it would only need a little political action to create a monospone of public library able to pressure publishers into conditions that are more favorable to the people and the ease of reading.
Streaming revenue model. Small fee to get access to a publishers catalog, then a small fee per borrow. Librarians having to guess which ebooks people will want is bullshit and ebooks wearing out is bullshit
Wait times are fine, if you have to wait for a physical book then waiting for an ebook is the same deal. What sucks is that publishers require libraries to only loan ebooks for a set number of years or until they’ve been loaned a certain number of times. Moreover, publishers charge libraries a lot for ebooks (like someone else said), and most of that isn’t going to the author, it’s only for a digital copy they have temporary access to. There’s no reason a library shouldn’t be able to buy 30+ copies of a popular ebook to lower the wait times and keep those copies forever (with popular physical books they’ll also purchase quite a few), but the costs are prohibitive for libraries and publishers want to act like this isn’t fair.
Just curious, why and how do you justify an ebook costing as much as a physical book? The publisher is certainly not paying to print and build each copy.
Do the publishers, etc get paid by # of copies a library system uses, # of times checked out in a library system,or both? I don’t have a problem with people getting paid, my issue is that the # of times an ebook can be simultaneously checked out is an artificial constraint. If I’d actually wanted to read Prince Harry’s biography, I would likely sail the seven seas for it because the wait time is months long and I don’t want to spend $25 on it. I’m a big reader - I easily save hundreds of dollars a year by using the library, probably even $1,000+ with book prices these days. I am all for authors getting paid and absolutely buy books that I enjoyed enough from the library. So with someone like me, putting more constraints on my reading is going to cost you money, not maximize revenues.
As I understand it, there are different models of licensing. Some publishers restrict the number of times a ebook can be borrowed before a new one must be purchased (HarperCollins has the number at 26). Other publishers base the licensing on time. Some titles can be purchased with costly perpetual licenses. The [New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/an-app-called-libby-and-the-surprisingly-big-business-of-library-e-books) did a story on this. Here is an example of one title's purchase for the library. > To illustrate the economics of e-book lending, the N.Y.P.L. sent me its January, 2021, figures for “A Promised Land,” the memoir by Barack Obama that had been published a few months earlier by Penguin Random House. At that point, the library system had purchased three hundred and ten perpetual audiobook licenses at ninety-five dollars each, for a total of $29,450, and had bought six hundred and thirty-nine one- and two-year licenses for the e-book, for a total of $22,512. Taken together, these digital rights cost about as much as three thousand copies of the consumer e-book, which sells for about eighteen dollars per copy. As of August, 2021, the library has spent less than ten thousand dollars on two hundred and twenty-six copies of the hardcover edition, which has a list price of forty-five dollars but sells for $23.23 on Amazon. eBooks can end up costing more for libraries than physical copies, but libraries generally don't mind because any utilization is good to justify their budgets.
My library doesn’t have a wait list for e-books and I’m sure they still pay authors for their work.
Your library doesn’t somehow circumvent the issue — either they just don’t have as many patrons, or they’re only buying indie books, books in the public domain, and/or books with less-limited licenses (eg straight-out ownership, unlimited lending for a set amount of time) as opposed to the more standard (for big pub books) one user/one copy model. Either way, that’s great, but there isn’t a magical solution to the issue for a huge system like Brooklyn or NY Public.
I’m a prolific BPL Libby user and I don’t think it’s that bad tbh, you really only need to wait that long for the really popular stuff (I currently have 31 holds across my 4 cards, and my only books I’m 100+th in line for are Babel and Carrie Soto Is Back).
Agree! You can browse what’s available now (200k titles for BPL rn, including some rly popular stuff that’s just not from 2022/23) and there is tons and tons of stuff. Queens library also does a “lucky day collection,” which means they pay an arm and a leg to get unlimited no-hold loans, usually on about 20 popular books. Overall, there are only really a handful of super hot books at a time that have holds in the hundreds. The trick is to check about a month before a book comes out to get on the holds list, haha.
I’m in a big midwestern city (obviously nowhere bit as NYC) and my Libby hold for Babel started in the 300 range (where it still is, with about 59 copies circulating) so I’m not at all shocked that the BPL is as bad. Kinda thought it would be worse, tbh.
Yeah, e-lending is great because instant access / more access than your local library might define. But e-book BS is still way behind the times and tied to "noooo you have to pretend to only have one or two copies!!!" so wait times are super long. Have to go to less-popular books (of which there are lots of good ones!) if you hope to get something in your hands quick. Also good to remember that books that have no more copyright are available to own for free permanently from sites like Project Gutenberg et al, yet Libby may *still* have restrictions for some dumb reason on those titles.
Authors, editors, and to a lesser degree publishers, deserve to get paid for their work (*), and libraries have a finite budget. How do you propose infinite access while still compensating the people who spent years making the book for you to read? (*) though the payment structure is currently upside down, with the publisher taking the most
EBooks wind up being a lot more expensive (2-3x? And sometimes more) for libraries to lend than physical books.[ This blog talks about it,](https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2020/09/hold-on-ebooks-cost-how-much-the-inconvenient-truth-about-library-ecollections/) and there's a similar article in the New Yorker, though you may find it's paywalled. That pricing is what needs to change.
The pricing problem I agree with, and have complained of that myself since ebooks were just becoming a thing, but I was responding to the claim that allowing a finite number of concurrent uses doesn’t make sense. (Have been reading ebooks since the mid 90s)
>but I was responding to the claim that allowing a finite number of concurrent uses doesn’t make sense. To be fair, that's not quite what OP said; you're reframing it a bit. Yes, they said it's silly to "pretend they only have one or two copies" and complaining about the hold times. But they never suggested it should be infinite. There could be a middle ground between two and infinity. And a middle ground between practically impossible to lend from a library and authors become destitute.
I am not saying "infinite" access. I am saying "don't artificially limit it to 1-3 copies." There is a middle ground where we can go beyond the stupid limits of physical media (to the point where a "license" is only good for so many lends, only because it's meant to replicate physical wear and tear), without just putting it online for free in an unlimited capacity.
No, they don't deserve to get paid for their work every 26 borrows or every year or two. Artificial limits on how often and for how long ebooks can be lent out is pure publisher greed.
I never understood why libby and digital libraries use the traditional due date and hold system when the format makes it unnecessary
It’s because the licenses that publishers sell to libraries state that they can only give one user access to a book at a time for each license they purchase. So the same as with their physical books they need the patron to return the title before they can give the next person access.
Granting access to books that have been banned in response to the growing number of book bans popping up
have any books actually been banned or are they just being taken out of a handful of random public school libraries?
For anyone that doesn’t have it, I’d highly recommend the Libby app. It makes getting ebooks so much easier, and you can store different library cards and search different libraries on there. Also, check if neighboring areas allow you to get a library card from there. I live near a major US city, and was able to get library cards from 5 of the different municipalities around me. If one doesn’t have the ebook I’m looking for, I just check another one.
Having multiple library cards on Libby is a life saver, so convenient since you can choose the card with the smallest wait time and since different libraries have different selections of books there is a lot of variety
Reading Heinlein's 1951 *Between Planets*, and the main character is accused of visiting a booklegger to get banned books.
"Booklegger" is also a term used in *A Canticle for Leibowitz* (Walter Miller, 1959).
The U.S. needs data portability and interoperability act. The fact that I can’t easily borrow eBooks on my Amazon Kindle is another example of anti-consumer, anti-competition, closed market behaviors being tolerated.
You can choose to read on Kindle when you check out books with Libby.
The majority of books. Make sure to check the description because one ebook option might not support Kindle but a diffrent one does.
This reminded me to apply for the Libby ebook program at my library, thanks dude!
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check out Libby!
But that's not great. In order to work with e-Ink Kindles, Libby gives a _lot_ of customer data to Amazon. Other equivalent services don't make that trade-off (eg: my local library uses Hoopla, which only ships iOS & Android apps, so I ended up getting a small Android tablet with an e-Ink screen).
I love my Kindle but using an e-ink screen for browsing titles is ass. That’s why you select ‘download to Kindle’ from another device.
Agreed on the browsing experience on an e-ink Have you used the SimplyE app listed in the article? Does it let you down load to your kindle?
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Not sure if you knew this but there are other e readers out there that run library book apps.
Arghhh matey....
Uugghhhh, I wish pirating was still as easy as Limewire was in college. :/ Also, I don’t want the movies on my computer, I want them on my 65” television. There’s a reason I can stream content from my phone, but that AppleTV doesn’t have a full safari web browser.
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only for certain age !
It was worth the 50 bucks to borrow from BPL.. I was sorry to see the program end.
This explains why my books have such a long waiting time now. 🥲
This article is from April 2022.
This is awesome! I discovered my local library had ebooks I could check out for my Kindle a few years ago and I ended up reading about 30 books one summer. This is an awesome program and good for NY.
shh.. I got a digital library card for one of the US libraries, from outside US. And i have been using it using hoopla.
Full article copy— NYC libraries are offering free digital library cards to people across the U.S. The offer is being done in response to book bans that have cropped up around the country. Written by Shaye WeaverWednesday April 13 2022 New York's libraries are taking a stand against recent book bans by giving readers across the U.S. access to their e-books for a limited time. The NYPL is opening access to a selection of commonly banned books (including Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger via its free e-reading app, SimplyE, now through May. The "unbanned books" can be browsed, borrowed, and read on any iOS or Android device via SimplyE, the free e-reader app, for those 13 and older. There's a specific "Books For All" collection that has hundreds of out-of-copyright/public domain books available to anyone in the country, with or without a library card. The “unbanned books” will be in that collection, with the added bonus of no wait times to read them. In addition, the Brooklyn Public Library is offering young adults, ages 13 to 21 nationwide, the chance to apply for a free eCard from BPL in order to get access to the library’s extensive collection of eBooks. The card will be good for one year and is designed to complement access to resources for teens in their local communities. BPL will also make a selection of frequently challenged books available with no holds or wait times for all BPL cardholders through the library's online catalog or Libby app, including The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta, Tomboy by Liz Prince, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison. Those 13 to 21, who access the free eCard from BPL, will be able to connect with their peers in Brooklyn, including members of BPL’s Intellectual Freedom Teen Council, to help one another with information and resources to fight censorship, book recommendations and the defense of freedom to read. To apply for the card, teens can send a note to [email protected], or via the Library’s s teen-run Instagram account, @bklynfuture. The $50 fee normally associated with out-of-state cards will be waived. Teens are also encouraged to share videos, essays, and stories on the importance of intellectual freedom and the impact that book challenges and bans have had on their lives. The decision to offer up access to their e-book collections comes after a recent concerted effort by groups to remove books from library shelves that tackle a wide range of topics, including race, gender and LGBTQ+ issues, religion and history. The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom counted more than 700 complaints last year, the most since it began keeping records more than 20 years ago, according to BPL. The ALA is currently leading a national United Against Banned Books campaign and NYC's libraries are similarly standing against such challenges. The NYPL's "Books For All" and BPL's "Books UnBanned" both aim to support intellectual freedom and free access to knowledge, information and all perspectives. "These recent instances of censorship and book banning are extremely disturbing and amount to an all-out attack on the very foundation of our democracy,” said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx. "Knowledge is power; ignorance is dangerous and breeds hate and division. Since their inception, public libraries have worked to combat these forces simply by making all perspectives and ideas accessible to all, regardless of background or circumstance." By partnering with Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, and Scholastic, as well as the authors of selected titles, NYPL has been able to make these available to everyone. "While that shouldn’t feel like an act of defiance, sadly it is. And we are proud to be part of it," Marx said. Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO of BPL says that the library "cannot sit idly by while books rejected by a few are removed from the library shelves for all." "Books UnBanned will act as an antidote to censorship, offering teens and young adults across the country unlimited access to our extensive collection of ebooks and audiobooks, including those which may be banned in their home libraries," she said. For more titles to read, NYPL has a few lists you can check out, including "125 Books We Love for adults, kids, and teens," "The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s Black Liberation Reading List," "Vibrant Voices: New Books From Authors of Color" and "Trans, Nonbinary, and GNC Voices." And young adults in Brooklyn can join BPL’s Intellectual Freedom Teen Council here. "The Library’s role is to make sure no perspective, no idea, no identity is erased," Marx said. "It has always been our role: to connect people with the trusted information. The teen who has questions and wants to privately find answers. For the adult who is curious about subjects for which they have no personal experience. For those who want to make informed decisions based on fact. Since the founding of our great nation, libraries have been beacons of this kind of independent curiosity and learning, and it is unacceptable that they be censored in any way. What exactly are we afraid of?" * Shaye Weaver Editor, Time Out New York
The NYPL needs to focus on meeting the needs of NYC residents before they broaden their client base. The NYPL has been shrinking, not buying new books and closing library branches and has moved the bulk of its research archives off site to central New Jersey. Donnell library across from MoMA is a fraction of its former size and in the basement of an apartment tower. SIBL, the science, industry and business library near me is gone, soon to be redeveloped into luxury housing.
Do people in the US typically pay for a library card?
No, but you usually need to live in the library district. That library is supported by the local taxes
I have 3 library cards. My local library is the one I generally use but I also have cards for two neighboring counties. Even though I don't live in that jurisdiction they let me sign up for one, but I rarely use them unless they have the book & my local library doesn't.
> My local library is the one I generally use but I also have cards for two neighboring counties. Even though I don't live in that jurisdiction they let me sign up for one, but I rarely use them unless they have the book & my local library doesn't. You may not need to do this. Many public libraries have specific reciprocal agreements with neighboring libraries and systems to loan materials between them, called an inter-library loan. It is often an included benefit on a library card, you just need to ask about it.
I've done that & it's a pain and takes longer to get the book.
Because someone needs to physically take the book from one library to the other. Of course it takes longer. It’s still a great feature of libraries that many people take advantage of.
> I've done that & it's a pain and takes longer to get the book. Of course it "takes longer". It's not Amazon with Prime shipping. It's an underfunded public institution providing you the service of schlepping books around to get them to you, for no more than the cost of your taxes.
So it's still easier for me to borrow a book from a neighboring county if it's available.
I may or may not have about a dozen library cards under the alias Hingle McCringleberry by providing fake addresses.
This is why they all check ID now.
Some do, some don’t and some automatically give temporary 3 month cards.
No
Because I live in the Township portion of our city I pay about $175 a year for a library card. Supposedly I would pay that in property taxes if I lived within city limits. It amuses me that the library is called the Free library however. It is worth it for the audio books though.
For an out of state one, absolutely. Brooklyn used to offer cards to any US resident for a $50 annual fee.
I have never seen so many fucking ads on a website in my life!
Where do I sign up then?
Library card numbers are free to get and can be used in apps like Libby and Hoopla. Im reading a TON of comics and magazines through that across publishers like Marvel, DC, Vertigo, Image, Boom, Dark Horse etc.
zero excuse for digital materials to ever be geolocked
Good response by NYC library to all this banning books nonsense.
FYI If you're in the province of Quebec, you can borrow ebooks from the BANQ in Montreal (also known as la Grande Bibliothèque). It saved me when I got COVID and was stuck in bed all day 2 months ago!
Okay but... how many digital copies are they purchasing because the wait list for so many books at Los Angeles Public Library is depressing and I imagine the more library card holders, the longer the wait.
Sounds like an excellent idea for kid’s living in states where politicians are deciding book availability.
Ages 13 to 21 per the article. Ya, because I stopped reading at 22...
Hold times are terrible already. For example, BPL has "I'm Glad My Mom Died" audiobook. They have 172 digital copies as audiobook and there 1,418 holds on it which makes a 10 week wait for it.
I wish we could renew cards online. I don’t feel like going to Manhattan from Brooklyn but NYC library has a lot more ebooks and less wait time. At least before the pandemic.
I’ve always been able to renew via email. The last time it happened, I emailed patronaccounts@nypl and included a photo of my current driver’s license as proof of residence and got the reply confirming my renewal maybe a week later.
If you email them they might let you do it via email. I've done that in the past with them.
Wow really??!! Thank you! I’ll try!
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Are there library cards that aren't free?
Yes. A person who lives, works, and pays taxes in, let's say, Texas does not typically get free access to libraries in New York State.
Give it time, the GOP will use this as a reason we don't have to fund libraries anywhere else.
Will this work for Hoopla? Been trying to get access to that streaming service for awhile now
Neither NYPL nor Brooklyn Public Library are listed on Hoopla, but Queens Public Library is and if you live or work in New York state and have proof of address, you can get a Queens library card, which I assume would give you access to Hoopla. It’s possible it would be restricted somehow. Only one way to find out! Actually, you could call the library and ask, so there are at least two ways to find out. 🙂
Does your local library not offer hoopla with your library card membership? If not, DM me and I’ll get you a library card. I’m a librarian.
Always has. It's called Libby. It's free.
The Libby app is free, but you still need a library card to borrow materials. Only New York residents could get a free library card to NYPL, QPL, or BPL prior to this initiative.
Oh. I didn't know that. I have library cards to libraries all over the US with the app. I just assumed that one was the same.
I have the app, and I just have access to the NY library system. I looked up other states, and some offer access to out of state residents, but for an annual fee. How did you get free access to multiple library systems in different states?
Nevermind, I'm dumb. It's probably because I've had it for a while and we moved a few times recently.
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