“We see a lot of demand for new titles, and if people can’t get them from us, they’ll go somewhere else,” said Drew Wylie, collections manager at Anoka County Library. “If you’re less able to get the books you want, you just might not read it at all. As a proponent of reading, I want to make sure our readers have access to whatever they want to read at all times.”
Wylie said Anoka County Library patrons continue to show that the library is wise to spend part of its nearly $1.1 million annual collections budget on e-book copies, though digital rentals are still not as popular as book and DVD rentals. Still, he thinks any exposure publishers can get with customers is key to building business.
“By taking away the ability for those people to read through libraries, you’re not selling more books. You’re just having them read less,” he said.
The Amercian Library Association came out against the move by Macmillan and other publishers, and the Anoka County Library offers a link for a petition about the change here.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for our community to show what our library means to them. Talk to the companies and say, ‘Hey! I like to get my books from the library and then I go out and buy similar authors’ titles. I support authorship. I support those businesses,'” said Wylie. “‘Just because I get these things from the library does not mean I don’t buy books from (publishing companies.)'”
