By Dale Boyd
Osoyoos Times
The Town of Osoyoos is joining libraries across Canada looking to increase access to digital publications which face rising costs from multinational publishers.
Osoyoos town council voted unanimously to support the Okanagan Regional Library (ORL) in their effort towards increasing digital publication access for Canadians.
Coun. Brian Harvey brought the motion forward at the June 3 regular open meeting of council. The motion asks council to draft letters of support to be forwarded to federal MPs and election candidates.
“Multi-national publishers are seeming to limit our access to titles and when it’s made available it’s very expensive,” Harvey said.
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The ORL is requesting support alongside members of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council across Canada who are lobbying municipalities to bring the issue to the attention of the federal government.
Approximately $100 million in public funds per year is spent on library acquisitions, with the ORL spending around $2.5 million a year across 31 branches.
However, it is still a struggle for libraries to obtain digital publications like e-books and audio books due to the high costs and licensing limitations imposed by multinational publishers.
According to a letter to council by Don Nettleton, CEO of the ORL, Kingdom of the Blind by Canadian author Louise Penny costs $13 for a paperback and $60 in the digital format. Digital books also face further restrictions like a limit on digital check-outs and time limits on the license.
“Those restrictions and costs make it difficult for libraries to provide important services in our communities that our customers want and need,” Nettleton states in the letter.
