Demand, costs for e-books, audiobooks rise for Quad-Cities libraries

Readers have steadily transitioned away from books on tape or CD, instead switching to online platforms to keep easy access to their materials while saving themselves the cost of purchasing the book.

But, the cost savings are not passed onto libraries. On average, libraries pay six times the amount for digital resources like audiobooks or e-books than the average consumer.

In Davenport, the rising costs mean 25% of the libraries annual budget, or about $125,000, is allocated annually just for the purchase of e-books and audiobooks, Assistant Director Lexie Reiling said. During the last quarter, the library saw about 20,000 checkouts between e-books and audiobooks alone. As demand grows, the cost goes with it, she said.

“We want to be able to meet the needs of everyone in our community, which means having access to physical print materials as well as digital materials, but that’s a very hard balance to strike,” she said.

Demand for digital offerings rose during the pandemic

Rock Island Library Director Angela Campbell said the popularity of e-books and audiobooks has steadily risen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With Illinois under a shelter in place order, the library was closed for some time, which forced patrons to go digital if they wanted new reading material.

“I think what happened was people weren’t really forced to use it (prior to the pandemic),” she said. “They could say, ‘Oh I’ll get around to learning it someday.’ But that someday came pretty fast.”

In 2020, Rock Island Public Library saw checkouts on Libby, a digital app used by all Quad-Cities area libraries, increase 23.7%. The year before, digital checkouts on Libby were down 2.5% compared to the year prior.

Since the pandemic, the number of digital checkouts on Libby in Rock Island has grown, with an 11% increase in 2021, 12.34% increase in 2022, 21.5% increase in 2023 and a 9.2% increase in 2024. 

How libraries navigate increased costs

Jan LaRoche, Adult/Young Adult Services Coordinator at Moline Public Library said the library primarily relies on two subscription services to help patrons find digital copies of books they want to read or listen to. One of those is Hoopla, where books are considered always available and the library is charged based on the number of times an item is checked out.

“If you were to check out an e-book or an audiobook, we get charged on that and that cost barrier is based on what it is,” she said.

On average, an audiobook will cost the Moline library about $2.66 per check out, an e-book $1.83 and a comic book about $1.15. In November 2024, a total of 1,145 items were checked out through the app by Moline library patrons.

Rock Island Public Library also uses Hoopla, but puts a cap on its monthly, and daily, spending to help fight the high cost. Recently, the library raised its monthly cap from $3,000 to $3,750 to satisfy the demands of its patrons.

“We may be well under that amount in some months, but having the cap in place ensures we never go over that amount,” Campbell said.

Campbell said the Rock Island library receives a yearly state grant for itself and another one for the Milan-Blackhawk Area Public Library District, because they are a contracting library. Between the two, the library receives about $70,000 in grant funding, all going toward digital resources.

Prices determined by publisher

The rising cost of e-books and audiobooks stem from a couple of things, said David Otten, collection services manager for Bettendorf Public Library. When libraries purchase physical copies of books, they are able to lend them out “as long as the binding wants to hold out.” Once the book is damaged, the library purchases another to replace it.

With e-books and audiobooks, the digital format ensures they last forever, which means in theory, fewer copies need to be purchased. Instead of purchasing, the library licenses materials for a specific amount of time.

Because those prices are set by the publisher, the cost of licenses can be set at any amount. LaRoche said that math may make sense for publishers, but is detrimental to libraries, as by design, digital media is circulated less, but the library is paying more.

For example, a hard copy of a best selling book in 2024 is selling for $32. If the Moline library wanted a digital copy of the book, they’d have to shell out $70 and would only have it for 24 months.

That same book is available to consumers on Audible, a subscription service specifically for audiobooks, for $22. The library would have to pay $75 and would only have the audiobook for 24 months.

On the flipside, print books are much cheaper to purchase, LaRoche said, as the library gets a discount of about 43%. By that math, that $70 digital book would only be $18 in hard copy for the library.

“I find it a little ironic that in publishing we’re getting a big discount in print books, but we’re paying a huge premium in electronic versions,” LaRoche said.

In November 2024 nearly 4,800 items were checked out digitally. In comparison, readers checked out nearly 21,800 print items from the Moline library that month.

‘They’re gonna price themselves out of the library’

Bettendorf patrons do not have access to Hoopla because of the cost per checkout system, Otten said. Instead, the library utilizes Libby, sometimes referred to as its parent company, Overdrive. 

On that platform, the library pays for each individual title it would like to have by purchasing a license, or purchasing access to, specific books. Libby allows access to some books for free, but the library has to purchase newer books or best sellers separately.

“It’s just like a physical book. If we just have one copy and one person has it, you have to wait for it and put it on hold and wait your turn,” Otten said.

For books with a high demand, the library can purchase multiple copies.

Moline too purchases digital copies for set time periods.

“Typically, the most common that we see are a metered access model,” LaRoche said. “What that means is we will buy the content and it will be available to patrons for 12 to 24 months.”

Another model the library uses involves capping checkouts, most commonly at 26. With this system, the library has the item until it reaches 26 checkouts. At that point, the option to check out the item disappears.

Rock Island does the same, but places the cap at 15. Even with the cap, Campbell said, the library spends about $20,000 a year on Libby checkouts alone.

LaRoche said the library has the option to purchase the item which will allow unlimited access, just like in a library, but it is very expensive. On average, the library pays six times more for books than the average consumer.

Campbell emphasized that for Rock Island, the library does not receive more funding to help fight the high costs. Instead, librarians have to reallocate money from other areas to help pay the high fees, something she personally struggles with.

“I guess I’m kind of old school that when I spend taxpayer money, I feel like we should own something,” said Campbell. “This is kind of unchartered territory for libraries to be basically renting it … I think we just have to go with the times, but eventually they’re gonna price themselves out of the library.”

Librarians find a way

Higher prices for libraries is not just affecting the Quad-Cities, but all libraries nationwide. In Illinois, the Illinois Secretary of State and Illinois State Library awarded a nearly $1 million grant to the Reaching Across Illinois Library System and the Illinois Heartland Library System for the “E-books for Illinois” Program, eRead Illinois, in 2013. The grant program ended in May 2015.

The grant allowed Illinois readers access to e-books, funding for coordinators and a list of free e-book sources. The program is now sustained through membership fees, which are significantly less than the cost of access to systems like Hoopla or Libby, Campbell said.

To be part of eRead Illinois, the cost is less than $1,000 annually.

Libraries that are part of the eRead Illinois program are also part of the PrairieCat Catalog, where libraries in 22 counties in northern Illinois create collections of their own to share. Campbell said this helps smaller libraries with smaller budgets still offer resources to their patrons without having to spend big.

On the Iowa, the libraries are part of a similar consortium called RiverShare where anyone with an Iowa library card to a library from Muscatine to Clinton can access a certain set of titles. Each library is allowed to also have an “advantage collection,” which are specific titles owned by that specific library only for its patrons to use.

Reiling said for her Davenport patrons specifically, they receive the same benefit of access as if they were checking out print materials. Part of the libraries mission, she said, is ensuring patrons have access to resources of all kinds. Having a shared library just reinforces that message, at a lower cost.

“Having access to e-books gives them those resources in a format they can reach no matter where they are,” she said. “By sharing our resources together, that gives folks who live in the Iowa Quad-Cities a bigger variety of items to choose from.”