Irish Examiner view: Libraries struggling to cope with consumer demand for ebooks and audiobooks

Rising prices and restrictive licensing terms is having an affect on more than 40% of the national collection of ebook titles

Hard copy books are exempt from Vat, while digital copies are subject to a 4% rate. Something that needs to change.

Ireland’s first public library opened in 1707 during what became known as the “Age of Enlightenment”.

There are now 330 branches across 31 local authorities, and over 30 mobile libraries.

However, libraries are struggling to cope with consumer demand for ebooks and their audio equivalent, because of rising prices and restrictive licensing terms. 

Limits on loans 

Currently, more than 40% of the national collection of ebook titles have restrictions, where limits are placed on the number of loans per title or time limits on the licensing agreement. 

With popular authors such as Lee Child, Cathy Kelly, or Richard Osman and his The Thursday Murder Club, these are soon exhausted.

In other ways, too, the digital market is different from the hard copy world. It is subject to a 4% Vat rate in Ireland while books are exempt. 

This is difficult to justify as anything other than a regressive tax on knowledge. 

The whole situation needs rapid reform.