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Angus pushing for fair access to ebooks

He says libraries pay up to four times for an ebook over a print book
2017 Timmins Public Library MH
The Timmins Public Library on 2nd Avenue. Maija Hoggett/TimminsToday

Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus has concerns libraries are being unfairly targeted by the cost of ebooks.

Angus, who is also a published author, is calling on the government to create a more fair way for libraries to access ebook rights.

"Libraries play a huge role in our communities and must work with limited budgets. We can't be handcuffing them even further," he said in a news release.

According to Angus, a number of restrictions on buying and using ebooks makes it difficult for public libraries, which he said pay up to four times more for an ebook than a print book.

"These books come with time limits on their use. That means libraries have to decide whether to spend large amounts of money on re-purchasing the titles or losing parts of their collection every couple of years," he said.

He said smaller and medium libraries have tried to pool resources, but there are long waitlists as only one reader can borrow a title at a time.

"Compounding high prices and expiration dates is the fact there are also embargoes being placed on popular best sellers. And this puts the ebook market for libraries at a further disadvantage," he said.

In 2018 at the Timmins Public Library there were 16,452 circulations of electronic publications.

Last month, Timmins council passed a motion asking the government to come up with a solution to increase access to digital publications and help libraries meet the cost requirements to acquire them.

The motion notes that local library users are increasingly looking to access digital publications, but access to the publications is reduced by "prohibitively high licensing fees or else entirely denied to Canadian libraries".