I wish you were able to access HooplaDigital (maybe by finding a branch of NYPL nearby to the one where you're registered and seeing if you can log into it?) In my experience I've found it to be better and more convenient than Overdrive. Per Wikipedia, the content is paid for by participating library systems. (There is a bit of negative buzz about them, though, on the Wikipedia page.
Luckily for me in San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Library system has its own recommendations page and digital catalog, separate from Overdrive, Libby and HooplaDigital. They've been very good about buying books I've suggested over the past ten years, including really niche things like Richard Lupoff's autobiography, WHERE MEMORY HIDES and Matthew Hughes' non-sf historical novel WHAT THE WIND BRINGS, which was written on a grant he got from the Canadian government and won the 2020 Pacific Northwest Endeavor Award.
This strikes me as hyperbole. I'm as satisifed with my local library (and the county and state systems it plugs into) as ever. I only check out ebooks 10% of the time so I can't reliably speak for the Overdrive/LIbby/Hoopla/cloudLibrary experience. I do suspect more of the library's funds are going to ebooks as the number of new physical books seems to be diminishing. But easy access to other collections more than meets my needs such that I've never made recommendations for new purchases.
Libraries, like most institutions, may have future financial pressures and difficulties. But I don't think KKR will ruin the library system we have developed in the US. On the other hand, I can imagine Warner Discovery trashing Turner Classic Movies and I'm taking steps in case it happens.
VERY interesting piece. As an English professor, friend of librarians, and user of OverDrive and Libby, this was an illuminating and alarming piece. Thank you for sharing it. I'll be sharing it with friends
Bad news: libraries are thoroughly enshittified. Here's a graphic illustrating the history of mergers in the library market (academic and public): https://librarytechnology.org/mergers/
We're well past the precipice. Overdrive's first sin against libraries wasn't selling out to KKR. For years prior they positioned themselves as the hapless middleman - "Sorry, your eaudiobooks licenses are $110 because that's what the publishers want!" They bought licenses from publishers at a wholesale cost and resold at the MSRP, pocketing the savings at the expense of public institutions and their taxpayers. But they have the platform with the DRM (the Overdrive reading app and Libby have Adobe's Digital Editions - absolute dogshit software - baked in) so publishers seemed happy with the arrangement and competition was extremely limited. Overdrive is a classic example of a rent-seeking corporation.
But they're not the only corporation exhibiting parasitism. Clarivate has been on an acquisitions frenzy. They've bought up ProQuest, a company that was on its own acquisition frenzy, and Innovative, effectively gobbling up the majority of integrated-library systems and discovery systems (the software that library catalogues and searches are built on). These corporate systems have seen very little change over the last decade or so but that hasn't kept the companies that sell them from asking for higher subscription fees every year.
We can't let publishers off the hook either. Public libraries deal primarily with the big five. I think it was 2019 - I got a press release from Penguin Random House. They were doing away with their one-copy/one-user ebook license model (basically you buy a license that you own "perpetually" that allows one copy of an ebook to be lent to one patron) in favor of a metered model (where all licenses expire after a period of time or set number of circulations). Allegedly this was to help libraries save money (metered licenses have a lower sticker price) and to make catalogues less cluttered (deleting expired titles can actually be a ton of work). The publisher fuckery was never-ending.
Meanwhile you've got librarians getting paid poverty wages while trying to shoulder the burden of being one of the last public spaces in North America people can access without being charged. It's not a great time to be a librarian in a public library.
It's too bad that an open source ebook lending server that libraries could host themselves and tie in with their existing user management systems probably isn't something publishers or ereader manufacturers would get on board with.
I was in charge of the entire materials purchasing for a pretty large public library up until 3 months ago. I agree, Overdrive is pretty sucky, and only got worse during my time there. Which is why my library, right before I left, put in our notice to terminate our ongoing contract with them, which was enacted in the Fall of 2011. Now, thankfully the price never changed over that time period (it was a whopping 9k a year, which took up almost half of the budget for our 'digital library' budget, used for purchasing electronic e/audiobooks). But, the recent years of constant changes and feeling like we weren't quite getting the bang for our buck was a big part of it.
Over a year ago we had started a contract with Bibliotheca for their service cloudLibrary, which basically does the same thing. But, is way better, and the contract is cheaper. But, they were also going through a few changes before I left that made me feel a bit sour. As the underdog, though, I'm rooting for them. And, actually, know of a ton of libraries that are switching over to them (and, from the purchasing side of things, I could def tell that Overdrive is getting nervous; let me tell ya, they were NOT happy when we pulled a bunch of our resources out and switched them over to Cloudlibrary)
So, one of the great things about Overdrive was that you can opt into a Consortium. In fact, that's essentially what a third of the contractual spending was on: being connected to the Consortium and taking part in Overdrive's digital infrastructure (using their website, blah blah blah). The other 6k was basically a purchasing obligation. We set aside 6k to spend *in the Consortium* per year. This way, we are benefitting all of the members, because the titles bought through a specific Consortium version of the Marketplace website were open for all of the libraries. Alternatively, we could buy separately through the Advantage marketplace website. Those titles were earmarked *only* for our patrons. But, the money could not come out of the 6k. This was the arrangement for decade or so we were connected to them.
Now, let me say something that disagrees with the other librarians, and perhaps yourself. I found the Recommendations to be a nightmare. I detested that feature. That *may* be because of how our library was set up. *I* was in charge of purchasing ALL LIBRARY MATERIALS. DVDs, BluRays, Physical Audiobooks, games, tablets, and 70k dollars worth of books (in every genre available). There, then, was a lot to do. On top of that, getting *literally hundreds* of seemingly random recommendations from patrons, with no easy way to collect and sort them to see, for instance, what particular item was getting a lot of requests, was overwhelming. Seriously, it was common to get close to $10k
worth of recommendations in the span of a few weeks because people would literally spam the recommendation button.
On top of this... well, a lot of the public probably doesn't really understand exactly *how fucking expensive* ebooks and audiobooks are through these platforms, nor the fact that when I *purchase* them, 9 times out of 10 the set up it actually *to rent them*. Either for a set number of checkouts (maybe for simultaneous, but usually not), or checkouts for set period of time. So, ok, I end up spending on 1 *hot new book* $110 to have it for a year, or alternatively like 26 checkouts. And, at the same time use up a fairly significant chunk of my sub-budget. Now, some titles (depending on the publisher, and probably other contract stuff) do have it where you can (allegedly) have access to a title in perpetuity. But, that was not the most common arrangement.
So, for me it was a nightmare. You know what I think if far more preferable? The option you mentioned having to go with: filling out a form on the actual library's website, which goes to a real live librarian (someone in collection dev/acquisitions) who can then make the decision, and who you have been informed is actually seeing it. Why that works for me? Because *we had rules in place for suggestions*. A patron was limited to 2 suggestions per month. And, of course, it was up to the discretion of the collection development librarian/associate, who is abiding by the collection policies of the library. And, if the suggestion is rejected, the patron is told. If it is accepted, the material is put on hold for them. A much better way of handling suggestions, imo. Perhaps an even better way would be if Overdrive or Cloudlibrary or whoever had settings so that the librarians could cap suggestions numbers per patron. That way people wouldn't spam it.
But, yeah, Overdrive sucks, lol. And, they are doing their best to become a monopoly in the library world, buying up other services like Kanopy..... Hope they fail bigtime!
Aug 5, 2023·edited Aug 5, 2023Liked by Karawynn Long
Do you think this is connected at all to the recent conservative push to gut libraries? I mean, money is certainly one of the primary drivers behind Overdrive's acquisition. But since fucking people over is the Republican _modus operandi_, it would make complete sense to me if (1) KKR was friends with and/or mostly composed of Republicans, and (2) they saw the acquisition of Overdrive as one stone with which they could kill the two birds of making money and gutting libraries. This is just a hypothesis without any kind of firm basis, but it seems horribly plausible to me.
I have Libby from my public library and my academic library. Recommending a purchase is still active with my academic library, but not the public library.
I wish you were able to access HooplaDigital (maybe by finding a branch of NYPL nearby to the one where you're registered and seeing if you can log into it?) In my experience I've found it to be better and more convenient than Overdrive. Per Wikipedia, the content is paid for by participating library systems. (There is a bit of negative buzz about them, though, on the Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopla_(digital_media_service)#:~:text=Hoopla%20(stylized%20as%20hoopla)%20is,its%20collection%20of%20digital%20media.&text=Hoopla%20Digital%20is%20a%20division%20of%20Midwest%20Tape )
This is an excellent takedown of KKR and Overdrive. I've just shared it to a couple of progressive and corporate accountability listservs.
Luckily for me in San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Library system has its own recommendations page and digital catalog, separate from Overdrive, Libby and HooplaDigital. They've been very good about buying books I've suggested over the past ten years, including really niche things like Richard Lupoff's autobiography, WHERE MEMORY HIDES and Matthew Hughes' non-sf historical novel WHAT THE WIND BRINGS, which was written on a grant he got from the Canadian government and won the 2020 Pacific Northwest Endeavor Award.
This strikes me as hyperbole. I'm as satisifed with my local library (and the county and state systems it plugs into) as ever. I only check out ebooks 10% of the time so I can't reliably speak for the Overdrive/LIbby/Hoopla/cloudLibrary experience. I do suspect more of the library's funds are going to ebooks as the number of new physical books seems to be diminishing. But easy access to other collections more than meets my needs such that I've never made recommendations for new purchases.
Libraries, like most institutions, may have future financial pressures and difficulties. But I don't think KKR will ruin the library system we have developed in the US. On the other hand, I can imagine Warner Discovery trashing Turner Classic Movies and I'm taking steps in case it happens.
Great piece, thank you. I run an independent publishing company, and I had wondered what happened to Overdrive's recommendation feature.
VERY interesting piece. As an English professor, friend of librarians, and user of OverDrive and Libby, this was an illuminating and alarming piece. Thank you for sharing it. I'll be sharing it with friends
Bad news: libraries are thoroughly enshittified. Here's a graphic illustrating the history of mergers in the library market (academic and public): https://librarytechnology.org/mergers/
We're well past the precipice. Overdrive's first sin against libraries wasn't selling out to KKR. For years prior they positioned themselves as the hapless middleman - "Sorry, your eaudiobooks licenses are $110 because that's what the publishers want!" They bought licenses from publishers at a wholesale cost and resold at the MSRP, pocketing the savings at the expense of public institutions and their taxpayers. But they have the platform with the DRM (the Overdrive reading app and Libby have Adobe's Digital Editions - absolute dogshit software - baked in) so publishers seemed happy with the arrangement and competition was extremely limited. Overdrive is a classic example of a rent-seeking corporation.
But they're not the only corporation exhibiting parasitism. Clarivate has been on an acquisitions frenzy. They've bought up ProQuest, a company that was on its own acquisition frenzy, and Innovative, effectively gobbling up the majority of integrated-library systems and discovery systems (the software that library catalogues and searches are built on). These corporate systems have seen very little change over the last decade or so but that hasn't kept the companies that sell them from asking for higher subscription fees every year.
We can't let publishers off the hook either. Public libraries deal primarily with the big five. I think it was 2019 - I got a press release from Penguin Random House. They were doing away with their one-copy/one-user ebook license model (basically you buy a license that you own "perpetually" that allows one copy of an ebook to be lent to one patron) in favor of a metered model (where all licenses expire after a period of time or set number of circulations). Allegedly this was to help libraries save money (metered licenses have a lower sticker price) and to make catalogues less cluttered (deleting expired titles can actually be a ton of work). The publisher fuckery was never-ending.
Meanwhile you've got librarians getting paid poverty wages while trying to shoulder the burden of being one of the last public spaces in North America people can access without being charged. It's not a great time to be a librarian in a public library.
“As a hyperlexic child, I read the way other people breathed — constantly if allowed, desperately if thwarted.”
I feel like we might be soul siblings.
It's too bad that an open source ebook lending server that libraries could host themselves and tie in with their existing user management systems probably isn't something publishers or ereader manufacturers would get on board with.
Interesting take. Thanks K.
Should we consider copyright a platform?
I was in charge of the entire materials purchasing for a pretty large public library up until 3 months ago. I agree, Overdrive is pretty sucky, and only got worse during my time there. Which is why my library, right before I left, put in our notice to terminate our ongoing contract with them, which was enacted in the Fall of 2011. Now, thankfully the price never changed over that time period (it was a whopping 9k a year, which took up almost half of the budget for our 'digital library' budget, used for purchasing electronic e/audiobooks). But, the recent years of constant changes and feeling like we weren't quite getting the bang for our buck was a big part of it.
Over a year ago we had started a contract with Bibliotheca for their service cloudLibrary, which basically does the same thing. But, is way better, and the contract is cheaper. But, they were also going through a few changes before I left that made me feel a bit sour. As the underdog, though, I'm rooting for them. And, actually, know of a ton of libraries that are switching over to them (and, from the purchasing side of things, I could def tell that Overdrive is getting nervous; let me tell ya, they were NOT happy when we pulled a bunch of our resources out and switched them over to Cloudlibrary)
So, one of the great things about Overdrive was that you can opt into a Consortium. In fact, that's essentially what a third of the contractual spending was on: being connected to the Consortium and taking part in Overdrive's digital infrastructure (using their website, blah blah blah). The other 6k was basically a purchasing obligation. We set aside 6k to spend *in the Consortium* per year. This way, we are benefitting all of the members, because the titles bought through a specific Consortium version of the Marketplace website were open for all of the libraries. Alternatively, we could buy separately through the Advantage marketplace website. Those titles were earmarked *only* for our patrons. But, the money could not come out of the 6k. This was the arrangement for decade or so we were connected to them.
Now, let me say something that disagrees with the other librarians, and perhaps yourself. I found the Recommendations to be a nightmare. I detested that feature. That *may* be because of how our library was set up. *I* was in charge of purchasing ALL LIBRARY MATERIALS. DVDs, BluRays, Physical Audiobooks, games, tablets, and 70k dollars worth of books (in every genre available). There, then, was a lot to do. On top of that, getting *literally hundreds* of seemingly random recommendations from patrons, with no easy way to collect and sort them to see, for instance, what particular item was getting a lot of requests, was overwhelming. Seriously, it was common to get close to $10k
worth of recommendations in the span of a few weeks because people would literally spam the recommendation button.
On top of this... well, a lot of the public probably doesn't really understand exactly *how fucking expensive* ebooks and audiobooks are through these platforms, nor the fact that when I *purchase* them, 9 times out of 10 the set up it actually *to rent them*. Either for a set number of checkouts (maybe for simultaneous, but usually not), or checkouts for set period of time. So, ok, I end up spending on 1 *hot new book* $110 to have it for a year, or alternatively like 26 checkouts. And, at the same time use up a fairly significant chunk of my sub-budget. Now, some titles (depending on the publisher, and probably other contract stuff) do have it where you can (allegedly) have access to a title in perpetuity. But, that was not the most common arrangement.
So, for me it was a nightmare. You know what I think if far more preferable? The option you mentioned having to go with: filling out a form on the actual library's website, which goes to a real live librarian (someone in collection dev/acquisitions) who can then make the decision, and who you have been informed is actually seeing it. Why that works for me? Because *we had rules in place for suggestions*. A patron was limited to 2 suggestions per month. And, of course, it was up to the discretion of the collection development librarian/associate, who is abiding by the collection policies of the library. And, if the suggestion is rejected, the patron is told. If it is accepted, the material is put on hold for them. A much better way of handling suggestions, imo. Perhaps an even better way would be if Overdrive or Cloudlibrary or whoever had settings so that the librarians could cap suggestions numbers per patron. That way people wouldn't spam it.
But, yeah, Overdrive sucks, lol. And, they are doing their best to become a monopoly in the library world, buying up other services like Kanopy..... Hope they fail bigtime!
Shocking and gutting. Who dreams up such poisonous schemes? Can they not make a living doing something that doesn't enshittify the world?
Do you think this is connected at all to the recent conservative push to gut libraries? I mean, money is certainly one of the primary drivers behind Overdrive's acquisition. But since fucking people over is the Republican _modus operandi_, it would make complete sense to me if (1) KKR was friends with and/or mostly composed of Republicans, and (2) they saw the acquisition of Overdrive as one stone with which they could kill the two birds of making money and gutting libraries. This is just a hypothesis without any kind of firm basis, but it seems horribly plausible to me.
Great article. Saw this in the news today. KKR in talks to buy major publisher. Hmmm:
Deal for Simon & Schuster Said to Be Near
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/92915-deal-for-simon-schuster-said-to-be-near.html
I have Libby from my public library and my academic library. Recommending a purchase is still active with my academic library, but not the public library.