Lessons From the Untapped Programme
A recent report from Australia offers some valuable insights for ongoing discussions around eBooks in Europe. Based on an unprecedented study into what happens when out-of-print books are digitised and lent by libraries, it underlines both the failings of purely market-based models, and the contribution libraries can make.
A key challenge for libraries in looking to secure stronger guarantees of the possibility to access and lend eBooks is the argument that there is simply no need, as the market is already working.
Given this, opponents of change argue, there is no need to act to protect libraries’ ability to fulfil their mission to build collections and provide access to this through lending.
The challenge is not unique to Europe. Around the world, in those countries where eReading has developed as a habit, libraries have had to address questions around the availability of eBooks to them, as well as under what terms they can use them.
In Australia, the topic has received particular attention, thanks to a mixed-disciplinary team of academics who have done extensive work to understand the situation, and some of the underlying issues.
The result of this is the Untapped project, which builds on previous initiatives around library eLending and author interests. The overview report from this is now available.
The problem to be addressed
Untapped took an innovative approach, focusing on books which were no longer being sold by their publishers. The emphasis was on Australian books considered as significant.
The team acquired the rights for over 150 books, working with the publishers and authors, before turning them into eBooks. These were subsequently both lent through libraries and sold online. In some cases, physical editions of books were also sold. The project leads then tracked data in order to measure impacts.
Through this, the aim was firstly to understand how eLending could interact with sales of eBooks, and secondly to build up a sense of whether publisher decisions to stop selling books might represent lost income for authors.
A positive-sum game
The project demonstrated clearly that eLending and sales of eBooks go together. In addition to authors simply welcoming their works being available again for people to read, they also saw financial returns.
The authors compared trends for eBooks that were only available for sale with those available both for loan and for sale, seeing no difference in the trends between the two. Once the five top-selling ones were discounted, there was even a small positive impact on sales from availability in libraries.
Furthermore, it appeared that when libraries went out to promote eBooks, this also had a positive impact on lending, underlining the power of libraries to shape eReading habits.
When making recommendations – other than encouraging a more positive attitude towards libraries’ role with eBooks in general – the report also highlights the value of promoting library-owned and managed infrastructures for eLending.
A market failure
The report also provides vindication for the concern that leaving the choice about whether to sell books to the market leads to a sub-optimal outcome. Alongside authors’ own happiness at being in print again, the demand for books from readers highlights ongoing interest.
This conclusion supports calls for simpler forms of rights reversion, allowing writers themselves to reclaim the possibility to decide what happens with their work once publishers are finished with them. It also underlines a difference in interests and opinion between the two parties.
Meanwhile, for libraries of course, it means greater accessibility to significant works – a clear positive.
Takeaways for Europe
Australia can of course feel like a long way away, but as a small-to-medium sized country (at least in terms of population) where foreign publishers have a large share in the market, it is not so different from many European countries.
Clearly, also, the project focuses on out-of-commerce works, rather than current best-sellers, which are often the focus of attention in discussions on eBooks. At the same time, it does offer perhaps the most scientific exploration yet of how eLending and sales of eBooks interact. The answer is clear – the two seem to be interrelated, and may even be positive for less block-buster titles. This provides a powerful counter to the intuitive, but incorrect, assumption that lending costs sales.
The study as a whole also underlines the misalignment of the interests of publishers and writers, as well as the imperfection of the decisions taken by publishers around works. This is a useful reminder that we are talking about an imperfect market, and backs up earlier research from the same team that underlined that publishers enjoy structural advantages over libraries.
Ahead of the upcoming publication of research commissioned by Knowledge Rights 21 into competition on eBook markets and the legal possibilities to create legal backstops for eLending, the Untapped project already calls on policy makers to think differently about eBooks.
30 January 2025
