Publishers Are on a Collision Course With Libraries - News Breaks at Informations Today, Inc.

Panzer is recuperating from all the fun, barbecue, and jocularity of the three day holiday weekend. His tired kitty attitude didn't improve when he was shaken awake from his afternoon nap by booing and hissing coming from the Catosphere. Dragging his poor body into the Panzermobile, he followed all the noise to the News Breaks section at the Information Today, Inc. site. It didn't take any digging at all in the posts to find one about publisher Macmillan's library embargo. Panzer told you about the embargo back in the beginning of August.

900 copies? I'd be doing the Happy Cat Dance.

According to the News Breaks post by Terry Ballard, John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, has doubled down on his argument that libraries are responsible for the lessening of book sales. Macmillan has implemented an embargo on libraries not allowing them to obtain copies of books for the first two months they're on the market. As an example he used the sale of 900 copies of one book to a library. Because each of the 900 books could be checked out multiple times, he believed this proves the library impacted the book's sales. The post is divided into sections with librarians' responses to Mr. Sargent's arguments.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... I don't think Mr. Sargent understands library patrons. If a patron can't find a book at the library, he'll just find another book by somebody else to read. The patron is not going to run out and buy the book he couldn't find."

Note: This is a medium length post. Bring a cup of tea and a muffin for today's reading selection. If you plan to read Panzer's previous post about the embargo and follow all the links in it, you'll need an RV with cooking and sleeping facilities.

To read the News Breaks post tootle over to Macmillan and Libraries

To read Panzer's previous post about Macmillan tootle over to Macmillan library embargo