Why Isn’t the ebook You Want Available for Checkout from the Highland Park Public Library?

You may have noticed that while My Media Mall offers you older books from some of your favorite authors, many of their newest titles are not available. In fact, some authors can't be found in My Media Mall at all. There are several reasons why:

• While the Library would very much like to offer these and other titles to you, publishers’ policies are preventing us from doing so.

• Unlike consumers, the Library cannot purchase ebooks from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and then lend them out to a third party.

• Libraries can buy a print book from publishers and lend it out, but digital content is being treated differently by publishers and the companies who manage digital content licensing.

• Five of the seven largest publishing houses DO NOT sell their ebooks to libraries. The only two that sell to libraries do so with restrictions or exorbitant prices.

Publisher	Do they sell ebooks to libraries?	Any restrictions?	*Some of their authors whose latest* ebooks won’t be sold to libraries**
Hachette Book Group	NO	n/a	James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Anita Shreve
HarperCollins	YES	Only allow 26 checkouts per copy	Michael Crichton, Daniel Silva, Meg Cabot, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Elizabeth Lowell, Kim Harrison
Macmillan	NO	n/a	Iris Johansen, Emily Giffin, Kristin Hannah, Lisa Scottoline
Penguin Group	NO	n/a	Lisa Gardner, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Nora Roberts
Random House, Inc.	YES	Inflated prices; new ebooks cost 6x the amount charged to consumers	Dean Koontz, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, Lee Child
Scholastic	NO	n/a	Hunger Games series, Captain Underpants series, 39 Clues series
Simon & Schuster	NO	n/a	Jodi Picoult, Mary Higgins Clark, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Vince Flynn, Stephen King