The Digital Content Working Group has been active in pushing for legislative and policy changes to improve Canadian libraries’ access to digital content since its inception. Most recently this work has centred on seeking a legislative solution.
In 2021 the Digital Content Working Group worked with legal counsel to identify the key criteria for a fair eBook model for libraries. They are:
- Universal Availability: All published works must be made available for public libraries to purchase in all available formats to make available to their customers.
- Right to Acquire: Library rights to purchase should be free from embargo periods.
- Flexibility: Libraries require flexible licensing models to support the needs of all types of libraries, and to allow options for libraries to maintain content in their digital collections into perpetuity.
- Parity with Print: Library pricing models should be aligned to print models.
Inspired by the work of Library Futures, who identified consumer protection legislation as a promising avenue for libraries to seek protection from inequitable eBook selling practices, CULC/CBUC, the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) and Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) struck a Joint Committee on Trade eBook & eAudioBook Sustainability for Libraries. In 2023 the task force submitted a proposal for changes to the Ontario Consumer Protection Legislation as part of the government’s legislative review. The task force is working with legislative and government relations experts to identify the best jurisdiction to apply their efforts. They are reviewing federal and provincial/territorial opportunities and will present recommendations back to the partnering organizations.
Federal Budget Recommendations
Recommendation: That the Government of Canada ensures libraries have reasonable access on reasonable terms to e-content from multi-national publishers through consideration of amendments to the federal Competition Act and/or legislation like that introduced in the United States to ensure libraries have reasonable access to e-content and introduce legislation to ensure that practices that discriminate against libraries and harm library users is prohibited.
Access to E-Content
An important aspect of a successful restart is ensuring Canadians have reasonable access to arts and cultural materials through Canadian libraries. The pandemic’s impact on in-library services magnified public libraries’ need to have increased access to e-content – including both eAudio and eBook content – from multinational publishers.
Multinational publishers (collectively known as the “Big 5” plus Amazon) are limiting Canadian libraries’ access to e-content. Even when a publication is made available, these multinational publishers make it prohibitively expensive to acquire e-content. For example, Canadian author Charlotte Gray’s book, Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons is available to libraries for $23 in hardcover, $84 in eBook, and $107 in eAudio. The eBook and eAudio cost allows the title to be checked out electronically for 2 years. A paper edition would be expected to last at least 3 to 4 years at less than a third the cost of the eBook.
While Canadian publishers have consistently made e-content available to Canada’s public libraries, multinational publishers, as noted above, continue to place barriers in front of public library users.
While e-content has become mainstream, Canada’s publicly supported libraries are finding the evolving marketplace a difficult one in which to build digital collections. The current contractual landscape for e-content between primarily multinational publishers and libraries prohibits libraries from purchasing e-content at fair market prices. Instead of allowing the purchase of e-content on the same terms as traditional content, publishers set conditions, prices, and terms for licensing e-content to publicly supported libraries that publishers cannot obtain for print sales.
Pricing schemes treat e-content differently than traditional print without justification, allowing publishers to drive up prices to the detriment of libraries, their readers, and the public. The cost of digital purchase and license renewal is up to 10 times higher than that of a printed book. This barrier to digital access impacts public library users, including those from vulnerable populations who depend on library resources for vital information.
This anti-competitive behaviour is being permitted and is having a significant impact on the ability of libraries to serve users and the communities in which they reside.
In the United States, several states have advanced legislative proposals that empower libraries to negotiate fairer contracts. For instance, this year, Massachusetts filed a new bill to address libraries’ access to e-content to be considered in the current legislative session. The legislative text is designed to make fair and equitable licensing terms in eBook contracts by mitigating inequities between libraries and publishers.
Other proposed legislation, such as in Maryland and New York, provide more robust protection for libraries by requiring that eBooks available to the public also be made available to libraries on reasonable terms.
Reasonable terms provisions address both the contracting inequities and the refusal of some publishers to enter contracts with libraries. Reasonable terms provisions would require publishers to make eBooks available to libraries for a price comparable to, for example, current paper books.
Members of CULC/CBUC believe that the federal government should take steps to address issues related to libraries’ access to e-content by amending the federal Competition Act. They also recommend that the Minister of Canadian Heritage introduce legislation like that in the United States, to ensure that Canada’s public libraries have reasonable access to e-content from multinational publishers on reasonable terms.