Libraries continue to sell electronic books

Ereolen.dk –  this is the new electronic project in Danish libraries,  service meant  for hand-out and sale of electronic books. Books sales cause complaint  among  private internet shops in particular, who criticize this system for  violation of healthy competition.

Library  – it is a place, where books , as is customary to think,  are taken for a while. But with the new service  ereoelen.dk  Danish libraries made a step forward  and put up electronic books for sale directly from their home pages in internet.

Libraries sell books from publishing house’s sites and pass therefore electronic book shops. That is why such internet shops as saxo.com  and  riidr.com in their interview to newspaper Politiken qualify the contract between publishing houses and libraries as disrupting the healthy competition.  The point is that libraries having steady procurement by the state,  enter  exclusive sale contracts with publishing houses.

However libraries pay not so much attention to criticism, says Bo Fristed , the head of libraries consortium  ereoelen.dk. “We refuse to renegotiate conditions of our contract with publishing houses.  Mass media have no right to point us what to do. This is all like tempest in a tea-pot and I really don't understand why internet shops call it as disrupting competition”, - says Bo Fristed in his interview to DR Kultur.  Accordingly to his words, libraries are almost forced to follow such a system with the aim to get provement   to  the fact, that hand-outs of electronic books stimulate sales and not vice versa, as suppose some publishers and authors.

He refers to the experience in 1930, when  libraries got the right to hand-out books, what caused the increase of book sales at that time. “We are not going to sell a lot of books. We won’t compete with internet shops, we will stimulate sales instead”, - says Bo Fristed.

Will libraries join forces with internet shops? “Basically we could do it, but there are some technical difficulties, besides our project budget is limited. This year research will show, if hand-outs in electronic libraries will increase electronic books sales. This is our opinion, but we  have no proof and research will help get it,” ‒ he says.

Moreover, Bo Fristed believes,  that  owners of «electronic books shops» are annoyed, because they are sure, that libraries will sell electronic books at lower price. But this will not  happen, he guarantees. On the contrary, books will be on sale at average price plus various additional expenses, including  expenses for home pages of publishing houses, which will be accessible for users  directly from libraries pages.

The contract between libraries and publishing houses is made in such a way,  that libraries pay 18.5 DKK for every hand-out and user can take it only twice. If  this period of time is not enough for reader, he can buy the book and in this case library and publishing house both receive profit  in halves  – after the author gets his  fee.

According to data of  Libraries and Media  direction, agreement doesn’t contradict the libraries Low, and  as explained by Bo Fristed, there is no problem with municipalities too, because the question  here is not about a new sector of employment. Therefore he admitted,  that  the situation will depend a lot on the occurrence of official complaints about ereolen.dk.

Project  ereolen.dk  is implemented by six central libraries in Copenhagen,  Frederiksberg and Aarhus. The libraries got the sale contract with 66 publishing houses.

 

Original text, photo: DR.dk