More than 100,000 sign petition condemning Macmillan’s new ebook lending terms

In the US, more than 100,000 readers, authors and library staff have signed a petition condemning Macmillan’s plan to restrict library access to its new release ebooks.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), an average of 3000 people each day are signing the online petition, which launched on 11 September, as part of the ALA’s #eBooksForAll campaign.

‘The groundswell of support we’ve seen for our #eBooksForAll campaign underscores the vast number of readers that will be impacted by Macmillan Publishers’ planned embargo on eBook sales to libraries,’ said ALA president Wanda Brown. ‘It’s clear that readers across the nation are concerned about a reduction in library access to ebooks.’

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in July Macmillan announced a two-month conditional embargo on all its imprints’ library ebooks effective 1 November. Under the terms, each library system can publish a single perpetual access ebook copy of each Macmillan release during the first eight weeks of publication.

The new conditions are set to come into effect from 1 November.

Category: Library news International