LISNews: Librarian Blog Since 1999

Why are you for killing libraries?

When a top industry analyst looks at the book world, libraries don't figure very prominently. There is a war going on, and libraries are going to be collateral damage. They don't deserve it. US libraries circulated some 2.1 billion books last year, compared to 3.1 billion books sold. But they don't have much of a profile in the commercial world.(1) Being responsible for something like 39% of reading, bookstores only are about 4% of book sales.(2) The difference is, of course, that libraries don't pay every time they circulate a book. Under the First Sale doctrine—the idea that you, well, own the things you own—libraries can pay once, and lend a book out multiple times.