A Study of the Library Digital Content Ecosystem in 2022

In order to complete their University of Washington MLIS degrees, Megan Rosenfeld and Erin Andreassi have completed a study of the state of library ebooks in 2022. This is a dauting task: between legislation proposed or passed but legally challenged, new or changing license models and content, and continuing advocacy by librarians, publishers, authors, vendors, and lobbyists, against a backdrop of the social and library usage changes wrought by the COVID pandemic and economic inflation, the sector is complex and in flux. The authors have tried to present the various views accurately and objectively. They interviewed a wide-ranging group of influencers, but (perhaps not surprisingly but nonetheless disappointingly) they found librarians and writers more forthcoming than publishers. (Disclosure: many members of the RF Working Group were interviewed.) The result is a clear, carefully presented, and sound overview of the issues we face making digital content sustainably accessible under challenging circumstances in early to mid 2022. It will be useful in the future as a snapshot of this moment. The author have graciously allowed RF to post the study un a Creative Commons License. For that, Erin and Megan, we thank you! Questions or comments may be directed to the authors by emailing ReadersFirst. The paper, “Digital Books in Libraries: Moving Towards a Sustainable & Equitable System of Access to Information,” may be downloaded in PDF here: Digital Books in Libraries We have also posted this paper in our Projects/Studies page for future views here.