
On hold for a popular eBook or eAudiobook and wondering how holds work? Here’s some helpful info!
With the exception of hoopla instant borrows, digital materials fall under the lending model of One Copy/One User (OC/OU).
What does this mean?
Like with physical items, digital titles that fall under OC/OU can only be checked out by one person at a time PER COPY. In order to meet the demand for digital titles, libraries will often buy multiple copies of the same title or format. However, this can be incredibly expensive!
Let’s take a closer look:
Onyx Storm, the latest in the popular romantasy series, the Empyrean, was released on January 21st. As of this writing, there is a 4 month wait for the eBook and a 3 month wait for the audiobook on CloudLibrary.
With the wait times so long, why aren’t more copies made available to patrons?
The answer is pretty simple: cost. Using our example of Onyx Storm, let’s look at the cost of each copy, which is set by the publisher:
For each copy of the eAudiobook, it costs $109 with a perpetual license. For each copy of the eBook, it costs $60 with the license expiring in 2 years. These prices are significantly higher than if you were to buy your own digital copy. If a library were to purchase 5 copies of each format, it would cost $845 just for the one title. That’s over 10% of the monthly budget for CloudLibrary! Repeat this with other titles, and you start to see how the cost of digital content can add up quickly.
What are the different licenses?
Titles fall under several different licenses. They are:
Perpetual – the copy does not expire
2 year – the copy expires 2 years after the date of purchase
1 year – the copy expires 1 year after the date of purchase
26 checkouts – the copy expires after it has been checked out 26 times
NPR posted a video on their Instagram account about the cost of digital content. You can find that here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFJcxoYspl-/?igsh=bGJyNGZrdmluMzdj
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