In the heady days of 2011, it looked as though Rob Ford really, really wanted to close libraries. Or at least that library branch closures were a very real possibility, given budget reduction targets.
But other than the Urban Affairs branch – which had the misfortune of serving as a spectacular metaphor – the Toronto Public Library system remained pretty much as it was.
Except that, as of earlier this month, the library website now directs patrons to Indigo.ca.
In addition to providing information about a particular book, the TPL’s online catalogue now also displays an invitation to “Buy your own copy and support the Toronto Public Library.”
Clicking “More” untucks a small box with an Indigo.ca logo and the words “Buy Now from Indigo” linked to the retailer’s online store. Accompanying text lets us know that the Toronto Public Library receives a portion of the sale price.
The Ford bender may be over, but we’re now faced with the consequences of half-remembered, desperate actions taken by a Library Board in a less than ideal state of mind.
When I call Janet Davis to ask what this is all about, there’s an air of “We approved what?” confusion in her response.
The reliably principled councillor and Library Board member had been under the impression that this initiative would only involve electronic books, which publishers are not eager to allow the library to loan out.
She’s surprised when I tell her library users are being sent to Indigo to buy paper copies.
The library had put out a press release about the retail affiliate program the previous week but hadn’t distributed it to members of the board.
Generically titled “Buy a Book and Support the Library via torontopubliclibrary.ca,” the release includes a quote from board chair Paul Ainslie, who frames it as a matter of convenience: “We’re happy to offer this innovative program. We know that many library customers do a mix of borrowing books from the library and buying their own copies. It’s great to give those customers the opportunity to purchase books and at the same time support their library.”
But customers are also supporting their library when they, you know, use it. It’s rather odd to see an organization actively funnel business to a what is effectively a competitor which has swallowed up a formerly vibrant bookselling industry and redefined it in its own image.
(Councillor Ainslie – until recently one of Mayor Ford’s most loyal allies – did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.)
And the revenue stream is negligible: 5 per cent of a book’s sale price. Take, for example, Ecoholic Home, by NOW columnist Adria Vasil. Random House sets the list price at $24.95. Indigo sells it for $16.46. And if you were to buy it there after arriving via the library website, the TPL would receive 82¢.
The fine for an overdue book is 40¢ per day.
“It is difficult to estimate revenues,” warns a staff report that went before the Library Board on June 25, 2012 [pdf]. “Existing public library affiliate programs have generated modest revenues to date.”
How modest? “Westminster Libraries and Archives in the UK have been in an affiliate program with Amazon since 2005 and are now making approximately £100 [$155] per month.” It’s a much smaller system than Toronto’s, but even 10 times that sum isn’t going to add significantly to any budget. The only other precedent cited by TPL staff was Colorado’s Douglas County Libraries, but no dollar figure was attached.
The report originated from a series of “budget suggestions” [pdf] the TPL board hammered out in late 2011 as it scrambled to make Ford-demanded budget cuts without shuttering branches or shearing operating hours. Grouped with a similar but distinct proposal concerning electronic books, it was buried under the heading “Sell ebooks online.”
When the item came before the board in June 2012, Davis happened to be absent. “You know, I think I’ve missed one library meeting in my life,” she tells me. (The minutes say she left at 7, before the retail affiliate program came up [pdf].)
“Selling books through the library seems to me absolutely contrary to the objectives of the public library,” she says. “The library is the perfect thing to have universal access for all to books. And that’s why it’s free. And to begin this slippery slope of selling materials, I think, is the wrong direction.”
Davis compares it to advertising on the backs of due-date slips – another scheme that came out of the same frenzied period but is only starting up now.
“Why would we sell the good name of the Toronto Public Library and encourage more consumerism when it produces such pitiful returns? It’s not even generating any worthwhile revenue.”
“A library is about lending, sharing and circulating and keeping it free for everyone,” she affirms. “It’s a sharing program. It’s not a selling program.”
To a certain extent, it reminds me of individuals bypassing the health care system by heading to private clinics in the States.
“If people who can afford it start purchasing and not contributing a cent to the collective borrowing,” Davis says, “the demand will decline so you would have fewer people borrowing, fewer users. It would worry me if users declined because a certain slice of that group purchases as opposed to borrowing.”
Of course, it’s not as though people couldn’t already procure books from Indigo or anywhere else. But Davis is concerned that consciously encouraging patrons to purchase rather than wait their turn might be a furtive effort to shrink the collections budget by shrinking the user base.
TPL staff will report back to the board in a year’s time. For now, they’re working to expand the program by entering into agreements with AbeBooks (based in Victoria, BC, but owned by Amazon since 2008) and Kobo (spun off from Indigo and sold to Japanese conglomerate Rakuten in 2011).
Support your local library.
jonathang@nowtoronto.com | @goldsbie
