Amazon lifted KU exclusivity for libraries. More information in this article from New Shelves.
My question is to the librarians among us. Will your libraries be taking advantage of this feature? Is this something useful or will this have no bearing on your library collections?
I can’t speak officially for my library, but I have a feeling this will be pretty great news for libraries. I often have patrons ask for titles that turn out to be KU right now. It definitely opens things up for us.
Certified first 🙂 (if playing)
I can’t imagine it won’t make a difference.
One good recent example that was on our internal public library TEAMS channel was that a patron was frustrated that Freda McFadden books weren’t available as Ebooks and was asking if the staff had missed something.
I was the one that posted (after checking) that because her books were available in KU, they would not be available to us as ebooks.
Yay! I didn’t want to presume. But hoped I was first!
That sounds like an excellent idea for libraries.
(I am not a librarian, so all I can do is have an opinion…)
I’m going to chat with folks in our Access Services department about this. I’m not sure how this would slot into our usual acquisition process since we work at scale but I can see us using it to fulfill patron requests to start.
My question is whether this will impact audible’s exclusivity for the plus catalog, since it’s also Amazon and since plus mirrors unlimited.
I intensely dislike Amazon and will not buy ANYTHING from them until I have exhausted all other options. But I hope this helps out libraries, that need all the help they can get at the moment.
In audiobooks particularly I’m finding that Amazon/Audible no longer sells them. You have to subscribe to listen to them. Some are not at the library, and other venues either can’t sell them at all or have to charge ridiculous prices (twice the cost of other audio books by the same author.)
But I don’t understand audiobook pricing schemes anyway when a series that includes 12 books can be priced anywhere from $12.99 to $42.99 (not including sales). It feels like “We have you hooked because you bought the rest of the series, so we’ll just make you pay through the nose for this last one.”
And now I will quietly slide my soapbox under my desk and go on about my day.
Scoot over so I can jump on your Soapbox. When Amazon bought Brilliance Audio all the audiobooks on Brilliance disappeared from Overdrive. It was heartbreaking. I loathe Amazon too….
Yup, me three ;-). After I cancelled my subscription, they tried to charge me for a bunch of things I did not buy using my card details. Thankfully my bank kept stopping them but they kept trying for a couple of months despite my numerous emails and phone calls about the situation. They kept trying until I started threatening them with legal actions. Only then did they apologise and stopped, claimed it was a glitch and my money would have been refunded. Why charge them then?? It was years ago but I’ve never trusted them since.
Me too – I do take their freebies, but I don’t actually read any of them. I just do it to annoy someone… oops.
I do not like the concepts of the publisher getting more money for a book they don’t have to produce than the author. It drives me crazy when there is less product needed to make, but they don’t have the equivalent reduction in cost. The author should get more. So no, I don’t support Amazon, and I don’t buy books from them.
Same. My reaction to this is as a library patron is YAY– hopefully I get to access the books I love while continuing to boycott Amazon! The exclusivity thing drives me absolutely up the wall.
I’m a digital services librarian and I’m in charge of purchasing my library’s content. We belong to a state-wide consortium so my titles are shared throughout the state unless it is cost per circ model.
My thoughts on this change are, “hmmmm”. This is a wait and see if this will be useful for me. I can already purchase books on Draft2Digital but often don’t buy them for a variety of collection policies.
Occasionally I have had patron request KU titles that I had no way to buy. With this option, if there is enough interest, I now have a way to meet that demand. But I honestly don’t see this affecting what, when or how I buy very much.
I’d be interested to see what other librarians think.
Since buyers would be purchasing them through Hoopla or Libby, would the buyers even know that they were/are a KU item?
I know my buyers will usually buy ebooks if a patron asks for it, when they are available. So if they become available and someone asks for it they will buy it, but I don’t know if the buyers will know the difference unless they know about that specific title.
But I do know that, now I’m going to have to go through my personal requests that I couldn’t get because they were on KU and have them ordered! ^_^
I have been anti-amazon for years because of the policy when I lost a favorite author who could only publish with Amazon. Libraries for me growing up were a haven. I was such a reader that it was my happy place. Having libraries not have access knocked me out of having anything to do with Amazon to this day for any product. Amazon still in my opinion has other issues but at least they are trying to correct this wrong.
I do all the purchasing for the adult materials including all the e-audio and ebooks. This decision may only affect us if a patron has a request. All of the library vendors are major behemoths. Amazon owns Audible [edit: Mod R]. Overdrive owns Libby and Kanopy. Midwest Tape owns Hoopla. If you use your library’s electronic resources (as you should!) and borrow a book from Libby, you can choose to read from the Libby app rather than Amazon. I have found some interesting, well-written titles from KU. I would then purchase the physical copy for our collection. With my favorite authors, yes, like IA, I purchase 2x. One physical copy for my personal collection, one for the library and the same with an ebook – sometimes again with audiobooks! 😉 Like White Hot on Friday! Whoo!
Amazon owns Graphic Audio? Huh, that’s news to me.
Hi ChristinaRegina,
Graphic Audio are owned by RBMedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMedia
Sam got ahead of me with the question, I was looking into the various investors who own RBMedia in turn, but cannot find the link back to Amazon. You may wish to amend your statement or let us know what we’re missing 🙂
I just came back to correct my error. Sorry! The others are correct though, I swear! lol
It depends on the price tier. Libraries paid a hefty price to own an e-book. The other options are link on how many times a book can be borrow. Hoopla is very expensive. This is why they have a limited number of items that can be borrow daily.
Maybe that hefty cost is why Boston Public Library is discontinuing Hoopla? (I use them for research not digital entertainment)
I’m a physical book lover and rarely buy ebooks (and NEVER from Amazon) so I don’t know how our small town library handles digital. (I just donate money to them yearly and pray they don’t lose more hours as they are down to 22hrs/wk)
I need to look into someone else’s comment that interlibrary loan is going away… I want to cry!
well crud, your comment is how I found out BPL is ending Hoopla services. I’m part of the 5% that uses Hoopla and BPL’s Hoopla catalog & borrowing limit was significantly better than my local mass library’s, including books used for school. Hoopla carries significantly MORE non-fiction ebooks than Libby, AND content that isn’t available/eligible for purchase to libraries through Libby. I knew the fallout from the loss of IMLS funding would impact ebook access disproportionately to other spending but I was hoping the service wouldn’t get yanked entirely.
I can’t officially speak for my library. That said, if the book is available via Overdrive and it’s something patrons would want to read, we’ll buy it.
The barriers are:
Authors understanding how to get into Overdrive
Budgets and by this I mean with the federal grants cut, small libraries have to cut ebook access, not to mention tariffs on printed books.
Look for an impact in January. Larger libraries are entering their fourth quarter in a few weeks and Collections librarians need to spend all their money for the year by October.
It’s gonna be really nice to not have to explain the KU restrictions to patrons.
Anyone know if this is for US only, or if other countries can access the books? I am from Canada.
There isn’t much information available on that atm, but it all seems to happen through the KDP system, which is available in other countries 🙂 So don’t quote me, but logically it should be?
First, is this only US libraries? Second, if it is international it will definitely change my buying behaviour. I have been moving away from Amazon into the Kobo/Google book world. I do use and value public libraries and would definitely halt my charge to elsewhere if those libraries were supported by Amazon
In my opinion this is a big deal because it means KU titles can now show up in Hoopla and can be purchased for Libby. That’s a huge market. Also, not sure if people know this but Amazon is starting to be a book vendor for libraries including MARC records. It’s on a trial basis, Connecticut is the pilot market. There’s special pricing for library customers. Presumably Amazon sees libraries as its next market. No movement yet on Audible exclusives being available for library purchase, that would be a nice next step.
The Llano County libraries are still not allowed to purchase books. 🤬🤬
I would say yes. Libraries buy what customers want to read. As long as a book is available through a vendor the library has a contract with we can purchase it. Many new authors and established authors are publishing through KU. Previously making them inaccessible. Now that we can get them, yes we will buy. How much depends on budget and demand. 42 year librarian.
I just received a newsletter from the Boston Public Library and if I remember correctly they are adding Kindle Unlimited to their offerings. They are also adding a new app to replace Hoopla which they are removing due to it’s expense.
Possibly! My library pays a yearly fee for Libby. We are part of a consortium within our library system. We do not have control over what materials are selected. (Larger libraries with larger budgets purchase additional titles; our budget doesn’t allow that)
We have a second digital library called Cloud Library where I do have purchasing power. This is where it may make a big difference. The selection of available materials is much smaller and hopefully now I’ll have access to more materials.
Yeah!!!!
I’m so excited to see this news.
It is extremely frustrating to see a book and not be able to find it at the library.
I love libraries for so many reasons.
I will start requesting KU books for purchase at my library.
We purchase through Hoopla and CloudLibrary. Hoopla is pay per checkout, and content is everything at or below our set price point, so if the price is right, books will be included. If not in Hoopla, we may purchase for CL based on demand. We have a suggest an item online form so members can ask for e titles, and we do purchase from those. Members can also request from their branch, and we send to our Collection Development person to see if they can get it. If the author is popular in print, it will also usually be purchased in ebook automatically. We are a large system (20ish branches) with a hefty e budget.
No. My library belongs to an Overdrive consortium of over 120 libraries in Illinois. We are the largest shared consortium in the Overdrive business. Obviously, I hope that your books are/will be available through Overdrive. 🙂
I think this is a big deal. Also booktok which drives a lot of KU book buying becomes more important as they can reach a wider audience.
I personally think that the *average* quality of a KU book is much lower than the quality of a non-KU book because there is so much junk on the platform.
But quality authors looking for a new audience can now go to KU (new readers) + Library (fans) for wider reach.
Hi,, I work at a public library and I am very excited about this. I often request our library to purchase e titles because I know that the public will love the diversity and it is quicker than getting the hard bound copies. We just got the Inheritance today!!!! I was first in line to get it (happy dance)
Well. This is actually the first I’ve heard of this. It *might* make a difference for my system? But I only get to choose books from Overdrive (our other service is Boundless, and the money from our budget for Boundless goes into the Illinois State Library coffers and they pick what is offered. This may have something to do with the fact that we use Ingram for our vendor, and not Baker & Taylor, which is what Boundless is affiliated with. But the point is I don’t get to pick.) We don’t have Hoopla in my system, we just can’t afford it. We have a very small allotment for Overdrive, and that is restricted to the first half of the fiscal year. In other words, I get a content credit for Overdrive, and that is replenished May 1, when the fiscal year starts. I have until Dec. 31 to spend it, otherwise it is thrown into the consortium pot for our regional reps to administer. My system does not have Overdrive Advantage, where the materials I pick are available only to my patrons. (That costs extra.) So anything I pick is shared among the Online Media of Northern Illinois library consortium. All of that is probably way more detail than anyone wanted.
I use Draft2Digital for my non-Amazon distribution of a cookbook that only has a small audience and surprisingly some librarians added it to their collection as I occasionally get paid $0.50 per checkout. So if they do this for my niche cookbook, why would they not be happy to select more novels their patrons are requesting?
(I am not KU.)
I will absolutely be going on a Libby shopping spree for my library.
There are a ton of titles that are popular/requested that we haven’t been able to buy because of the KU thing. Now we can!
I am a purchaser of physical content (adult fiction) only, but I would imagine that our central selectors who manage digital content will be very interested in this. (Particularly considering the upcoming sunsetting of the interlibrary loan system, which has been de-funded. )
I do see a lot of demand for KU titles, particularly those that have hit BookTok, so I think this is a good thing accessibility-wise. Many of those KU titles aren’t available in physical format from our contracted vendor, so this would be the only way to get them.
It’s possible. I have forwarded the information to my director and to the adult services librarian.
As youth services, I would be interested.
off topic question:
I was navigating around your beautiful website on my computer and saw the art behind the free fiction banner. I couldn’t identify it. Is it meant to depict a scene in a book or was it part of book art that I missed somehow?
It is not a commissioned illustration, but one of the purchased-licence stock image manipulations. It has been used for Innkeeper content on the blog 🙂
Oh I’m pretty sure most libraries are going to be ecstatic about it. I don’t know about mine in particular because I don’t really use it but it’s smaller than others and I know they use a lot of different other online resources so I think this is going to be a big deal for many. I don’t currently subscribe to KU because I don’t use it often enough to pay for the monthly fee.
I frequently borrow digitally from my library (via Libby) and do not subscribe to KU. I’d be delighted if KU titles I was interested in became available through my library.
I’m a librarian-in-training and personally I think this might be a good option for some libraries. Especially since there aren’t many existing options for self-pubbed authors.
I also wanted to bring your attention to another option for self published authors that’s just getting established. There’s a startup company called Briet that wants to create a model to sell ebooks to libraries outright rather than relying on current licensing models. It’s relatively new but a more ethical model than what currently exists.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/98310-library-startup-briet-wants-to-revolutionize-e-book-sales-not-licensing.html
https://briet.app/
Inheritance to be purchased by My Library.I Checked it out in the afternoon after work.I stopped by a local restaurant for a well earned snack. I finished it and was shocked that time had passed it was just before they closed the place for the night. wow!!! What a great story. thank you
I hope this is at least in part from the push back on what Audible is trying to do.
I’m glad KU titles are finally opening up to libraries. It gives patrons more options through the Notify Me feature, and the lower cost of many self-published ebooks compared to traditional bestsellers is a plus.
That said, budgets are always the bottleneck. I manage the adult collection at a mid-sized library with a digital budget a little over $1 million, split between OverDrive/Libby and Hoopla. In OverDrive, the vast majority goes to keeping up with demand by buying down holds and re-purchasing expired licenses. Only a small slice, maybe 15–20%, is left for adding new titles each month. Hoopla works differently since it’s all cost-per-circ, which gives patrons more freedom to discover titles without me pre-selecting them.
We do buy digital self-published books, but not as often as print self-pub. For me, and per our collection development policy, purchases have to be based on clear criteria: patron demand, professional or media reviews, and a recent pub date, not just availability on a platform. If those reviews are there (and I often go digging for them) and patron interest is strong, I’ll add the title.
The bigger challenge is that self-publishing has exploded, but there’s still no consistent review system libraries can lean on. Reviews aren’t just for selection; they’re also how we show accountability. They help justify how we spend public funds and give us something to point to if a title is ever challenged. With traditional publishing, that framework is built in. With self-pub, only a fraction of titles get that kind of coverage, which makes it harder to put them on equal footing when budgets are tight.
So overall, KU availability is a win, but those titles will still be competing with the big houses for limited dollars. Hoopla’s cost-per-circ model already gives indie authors more visibility, and OverDrive/Libby has started experimenting with subscription-style catalogs where titles are available for unlimited checkouts for a year. If KU or self-published authors could get into something like that it would boost their visibility, generate circulation data, and help make the case for future purchases outside the subscription.