Wednesday, July 20, 2022
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Posted by: Jim Flury
Over the past couple of years there have been bills introduced in several state legislatures with regards to eBook access and equity for libraries. The Maryland bill advanced the furthest; it was actually signed into law in early 2022 but was quickly appealed by the AAP, determined to be unconstitutional, and hence overturned.
The recent Library Futures eBooks Policy Paper provides a summary of what the issues are, as well as what action has been taken in which state legislatures with regards to legislation addressing eBook access.
There has also been some activity at the federal level. A November 18, 2021 letter was sent from Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Anna Eshoo to B & T CEO Amandeep Kochar addressing the issue. All of the CEO's of the big library eBook aggregators (OverDrive, CloudLibrary, etc.) were sent a copy of the same letter.
Prior to that, the CEO's of the "Big Five" publishing companies were asked by Wyden/Eshoo to submit answers to similar questions in a September 23, 2021 letter.
We haven't seen the replies from either the eBook aggregator or publisher CEO's to the Wyden/Eshoo requests for information but we'll keep an eye out and continue to monitor developments on this important topic.
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