Recently, two publishing houses announced changes to their library lending models for ebooks and audiobooks. Decisions surrounding these changes were made by the publishers and materially impact lending models and availability of popular digital content. OverDrive is disappointed with the lending model changes being implemented that limit the options institutions have with their content. We continue to advocate that publishers and authors are best served by offering multiple, flexible, and reasonable terms for libraries and schools to lend digital content. This includes simultaneous publication (aka “day and date” availability) and other purchase models that permit libraries, schools, and institutions affordable access to all titles, under reasonable terms.

A message from OverDrive Founder and CEO Steve Potash

We believe access to digital content at affordable prices and terms is essential to the continued growth of library usage, which benefits all parties including authors, publishers, and the library community. For sixteen years, OverDrive has advocated on behalf of libraries and school for fair and reasonable lending policies. We will continue to do so in meetings with publishers, through the Panorama Project, and in presentations at events like the upcoming American Library Association Annual Conference. We look forward to continuing this work, with all industry stakeholders, including other library digital service providers, librarians, publishers, authors, agents, and readers, and invite you to join our efforts.

PANORAMA PROJECT

The Panorama Project is the first large-scale, data-driven research project focused on understanding the impact of library holdings on book discovery, author brand development, and sales. Organized by publishers, booksellers, libraries, library service providers, authors, agents and key industry organizations, the Panorama Project is designed to track all forms of a work (physical and digital) aggregating and analyzing data from publishers, distributors, booksellers, public libraries, library service providers, search sites, social sites and other relevant data sources.

Learn more by visiting https://www.panoramaproject.org.