The Real Costs of Digital Materials

Bedford Public Library System, like many libraries in the US, uses a company called Hoopla to provide ebooks and digital audiobooks to library patrons, along with movies, television, music, and comics.  Hoopla provides the platform and technology to make digital checkouts possible – a website, the app, and the vendor website for the library to buy/license the content. Hoopla works with publishers to make their titles available to the library market and to the library user in two different ways. With instant borrows, multiple people can check out a title simultaneously and the library pays a fee for each borrow (known as cost-per-circulation); not all titles are available as instant borrows, it is up to the publisher if they want to offer this option. With flex borrows, a title is limited to one user per copy so patrons have to add themselves to hold lists to get a turn with the title. Once the initial license terms are exhausted, libraries have to purchase additional licenses to continue offering the title.

Library costs for licensing ebooks and digital audiobooks vary widely by publisher. Some offer standard retail pricing to libraries. In those cases, a book that a retail consumer could purchase at $14.99 is also offered to libraries at those terms. However, many publishers charge libraries substantially more than retail price, and others do not sell, but instead license the books to libraries with restrictions, such as a maximum number of checkouts, a time limit, or some combination of both. They charge the same price across borrowing platforms; in other words, the prices are the same whether libraries use Hoopla or Libby.

Here is a comparison of costs for some recent bestsellers (data from 7-31-2024):

High costs combined with titles that have expired licenses put the library in a double bind. While trying to meet demand by buying multiple copies of new material, older popular titles expire, and the library must buy additional licenses to keep providing them.

Compare this to the physical book, which the library can often buy at discount from book suppliers and circulate until the condition deteriorates. The library can then buy additional books if needed. Physical books can often circulate 50 or more times for years before needing replacement. The same goes for physical CD audiobooks but publishers are beginning to phase out offering these as demand turns to digital.

Increased use of digital materials and the resulting need to buy more copies will continue to drive up costs for digital materials. When you add in the costs of instant borrows, things get expensive pretty fast. Below is a chart detailing the increase in checkouts vs the increase in costs for the past two fiscal years.

BPLS believes that Hoopla’s mix of instant and flex borrows offers the most options for patrons to access a robust digital collection with as short wait times as possible. So far we have employed a 5 per month cap on instant borrows and a price cap of $2.84 for audiobooks in an effort to keep costs in line. We are finding that this is insufficient so we are moving to a 3 per month cap. We may employ a lower price cap in the future, which means fewer titles to choose from for instant borrows.

Here are some additional articles about this issue, showing how widespread this issue has become. Libraries across the country are feeling the squeeze.

• Libraries struggle to afford the demand for e-books and seek new state laws in fight with publishers | AP News
• Libraries Speak Out About E-Book Costs (forbes.com)
• ‘It’s making it harder for people to read’: Washington librarians say rising cost of e-books is unsustainable

Bonus Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Materials

Why is a book on Amazon, but not available on Hoopla?

There are many titles available on Amazon or other platforms that are not made available to the library market.  If an author has signed an exclusive agreement to a particular platform, that means their titles are only sold on that platform.

Why is an audiobook on Audible, but not available on Hoopla?

Audible is owned by Amazon. There are “Audible Exclusives” not available anywhere else, including through libraries.

Why do I have to wait? It’s just a digital file – can’t it be used by multiple people at once?

Publishers set the terms of use. It is one copy / one user for licensed materials. Hoopla negotiates contracts with publishers to offer titles as instant borrows so that people can use the file simultaneously, but not all publishers chose to participate. Other publishers choose to only license when a title is first released, then after a year or so they allow instant borrows.

Do libraries pay more for print books or audiobooks on CD?

There are no restrictions placed on physical materials purchased by libraries.  Libraries may even get a better price than the retail market based on discounts received through our suppliers. But publishers are slowly winding down the production of audiobooks on CD as demand for them declines.

Here is a chart that breaks down the digital licensing that the “Big 5” publishers offer to libraries.

*One copy/one user = one user can use the copy at a time

*Cost-per-circ = each checkout generates a charge to the library

Shout out to Timberland Regional Library’s website for the format and references in this post.