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A Funny Thing Happened By Karen G. Schneider Director of technology for the Shenendehowa Public Library in Clifton Park, New York. Column for May 2000 Along with 500,000 of my nearest friends, within 24 hours after its publication I owned a copy of Riding the Bullet by Stephen King (if you?ve been living in a cave since late February, it?s the first title by a major author to be issued exclusively in e-book format). And was I ever Riding the Bullet! I bought it from Peanut Press and put it on my Handspring Visor, which is a Palm-platform PDA (personal digital assistant, a small computing device for addresses, datebooks, memos, e-mail?and now e-books). For my desktop computer, I downloaded the Glassbook e-book reader and the Glassbook edition of Riding the Bullet distributed free through Amazon.com. The print seemed small on my Visor, but I quickly zoomed it up to a comfortable size. That night, using the backlighting feature shared by most e-books, I even read a few pages of Riding the Bullet in bed with the lights out?until my cats jumped on the bed and I jumped out of my skin. (Recommendation: Backlighting or no, read Stephen King with the lights on.) At the Public Library Association conference, heads nodded knowingly when presenters referred to time divided between ?before and after Riding the Bullet.? Many of us who?d had a ?wait and see? attitude understood intuitively that e-books have finally arrived. Jason Stone, director of the East Brunswick (N.J.) Public Library, was so excited about the prospect of circulating e-books he told me, ?I went to our board and said, ?We need to do this right now!?? Leone Cole sent me daily bulletins from Watertown (Mass.) Public Library from the moment she ordered the Rocketbook to the day her intrepid staff cataloged it and made it available. ?Am I the first?? she wondered. There are many libraries circulating e-books?but act fast, and you?re guaranteed to be first somewhere! The good news about e-books and copyright is that librarians have a working arrangement with Simon and Schuster to circulate e-books on e-readers such as Rocketbooks or offer them on public access computers, as long as we abide by the ?one download, one device? guideline. Just as you may purchase and then circulate a single copy of an analog book until it falls apart, you may download a copy of Riding the Bullet to an e-reader or a PC and allow many readers to enjoy it, one after the other. If you want two patrons to be able to read it simultaneously, you buy two copies. However, that?s a happy ending to what began as a disturbing story, and it remains an important cautionary tale. In the days immediately following the publication of Riding the Bullet, publishers and e-book vendors were telling librarians either that the work was completely unavailable to libraries, or that they would have to purchase a new title for every reader in accordance with the publisher?s ?one download, one user? rule. PR representatives at Netlibrary, Glassbook, and Simon and Schuster assured me that libraries weren?t intentionally excluded from copyright arrangements for Riding the Bullet; they were simply forgotten in the heat of the moment, since e-book companies had only two weeks to get ready for this digital debut. Although the idea that we?re forgettable is unfortunately plausible?if you can believe big companies routinely forget major customers of long standing?there is some disquieting evidence that Simon and Schuster made a conscious decision prior to the publication date for Riding the Bullet to prevent libraries from circulating electronic books under the familiar ?one download, one device? model. Far from being caught by surprise, the middlemen in the publishing arrangement? companies such as Netlibrary, Glassbook, and NuvoMedia? seemed well versed in Simon and Schuster?s guidelines for library use. Keith Titan of the Netlibrary public relations department immediately agreed when I asked if it was true that Riding the Bullet was not available for libraries, adding, ?If it were Netlibrary?s choice, I?m quite sure it would be available to public libraries.? He quickly pointed out that Bullet is the only Netlibrary title not available to libraries?to which I responded that it is also the only Netlibrary title our patrons are interested in. Mary Ellen Heinen of Glassbook was also familiar with Simon and Schuster?s guidelines, and emphasized that the book is ?the publisher?s intellectual property.? NuvoMedia, when asked about reports that S&S would not allow libraries to purchase Riding the Bullet, replied ?no comment.? Then I was forwarded copies of two identically worded memos sent in mid-March to librarians in different parts of the country in which two different divisions of Simon and Schuster explained that the publisher would not sell this book to libraries because ?all sales are for the sole use of the purchaser and can?t be shared.? The memos concluded, ?I?m sure that at some point in the future we will be selling to libraries such as yours. . . .? Coincidentally, the morning of my deadline for this article, Simon and Schuster called me to ?clarify? that this rule was not ?hard and fast,? and that the publisher could live with ?one download, one device.? The bottom line At the very least, we expect publishers to be in our corner with respect to fair use. But the middlemen such as Netlibrary, Glassbook, and NuvoMedia don?t get off scot-free; we need them to be our advocates if publishers attempt to exploit emerging formats so that working interpretations of copyright law become so restrictive libraries can no longer afford to buy books. Up to now, publishers have understood that librarians play a crucial role as the connection to many, many people who otherwise would not have access to books. With respect to e-books, this role becomes more, not less crucial; at PLA, evaluators for the Gates Library Initiative reported that in the three states they sampled, between 23 and 31% of the population did not have Internet access anywhere other than the library. Long after e-book publishing becomes as humdrum as quick oatmeal, we librarians will continue to be committed to providing books in any format to everyone who needs and wants them?whether or not they have a computer, a PDA, or even a roof over their heads. Enjoy the dawn of the e-book era?and watch your back. |
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