Librarians’ nationwide struggle against excessive e-book prices has had little success. Even after short legislative successes, publishers’ tight renewal and loan rules keep e-book prices high, limiting libraries’ selection of popular titles and frustrating customers. According to Axios, publishers often mandate libraries renew e-book licenses every two years or after 26 lending, which they find unreasonably costly. This limits the quantity of e-books they can lend out, especially bestsellers, which angers and confuses customers. The leading OverDrive-run Libby and hoopla applications, which let readers borrow innumerable e-books and audiobooks for free, are popular. Some libraries believe OverDrive and hoopla contracts are too expensive, so they’re deleting the apps, especially hoopla.
You can read more in an article published in the Axios web site at: https://www.axios.com/2024/05/06/library-librarians-e-books-license-policies.