FERNDALE, Wash — For every book a library buys, it costs four times as much to buy an e-book.
With costs rising, librarians said the situation is unsustainable.
While most people still take hardcovers home from the library, 30% of the books in circulation in Whatcom County are electronic, up 20% from the previous year. Digital books are virtually flying off the shelves across the country.
The trouble is, they're expensive. Libraries can no longer purchase e-books permanently like they could before. They now have to rent the same books from publishers every one or two years.
"The e-book of this title [Michael Connelly's The Law of Innocence] used to be $75 and we had it forever. Now it's $75 for two years. It expires and we have to buy another one," said Whatcom County Librarian Carmi Parker.
That's $200,000 a year for taxpayers in Whatcom County alone, and prices have steadily risen over the past decade.
"This is unsustainable," said Parker, who is a statewide expert on the subject.
Librarians compare the rental agreement with publishers to taxpayer money that pays for a road — only to have it torn up, paved and paid for again every two years.
"Taxpayers are simply not getting their money's worth," Parker said.
Rising costs are forcing libraries to buy fewer copies and/or wait longer to renew their leases.
That means longer waits for customers — some up to six months.
Not to mention, people with eyesight issues or dyslexia disproportionately use e-books because they provide special fonts.
"It's making it harder for people to read," said librarian Emma Radosevich. "It's making it harder for people to get the information that they want."
The CEO of America's Author's Guild told KING 5, "Public libraries do not have enough funding, but forcing publishers and authors to sell e-books to libraries at severely discounted rates — especially in cases when the library e-books replace consumer sales—is not the solution. [This] will simply take more money out of authors' and publishers' pockets."
Parker replied, "We love books, authors, and publishers. We just want to pay a fair price."
Librarians would like to see legislation passed to help close the affordability gap. In Washington, they hope to introduce a bill in Olympia next year.