Library staff say rising publisher costs driving digital budget choices; Beehive consortium plays central role

Orem Public Library staff told the commission that rising publisher prices and licensing models for e-materials are influencing how the library balances spending between physical collections, digital purchases and programs.

Bryce (library administrator) said the library increased its total collections budget by $69,000 this year and that staff shifted some equipment and major-supplies funds into a central admin budget to prioritize larger projects. He also said last years collections increase was $40,000. Programming funding rose by $21,000, he added, and the library has worked to reduce staff time spent administering fines while keeping a limited fines-and-fees policy.

On revenue, staff said fines and fees historically produced about $40,000 a year but have declined to roughly $16,000 this year; staff said revenue from Library Hall rentals and ticketed shows has increased and helps support equipment purchases.

Staff described the Beehive Library Consortium, the statewide consortium that provides shared access to OverDrive/Libby e-materials. Shannon (division manager) explained that the Utah State Library purchases a pool of copies and charges consortium members an allocation based partly on circulation (the presenter said the state recorded about 6.7 million circulations and a rough cost-per-circulation of about $0.31) and partly as a percentage of each librarys collection spending. Staff said offered copies owned by the state are first available to the purchasing librarys patrons then shared with the consortium once local requests are served (staff called those "advantage copies").

Staff described several licensing models: "metered" copies that can cost more (an example cited was about $130 for a metered title that expires after two years or 52 checkouts, whichever comes first), "one copy/one user" purchases that act like a physical book, and concurrent-use or multiple-copy licenses. The presenters explained the libraries do not always control which licensing option a publisher chooses and that the largest publishers have moved some high-demand titles into more expensive models.

Staff said the library now sees significant digital demand: about a third of the librarys checkouts use the Libby app (455,000 of roughly 1.35 million checkouts last year). The library reported about 600,000 holds systemwide with an average wait time of 56 days; staff said a relatively small number of power users (patrons holding 21to30 items) account for roughly 400,000 of those holds. Staff noted some local interlibrary agreements allow residents to hold items on neighboring systems, increasing an individual households effective holds cap.

Library staff asked the commission whether the library should continue to increase digital spending to meet demand or rebalance toward physical materials and programs. Staff said the Beehive consortium remains the librarys best value overall but cautioned that publisherspricing remains a global issue that could force further strategy changes. "We would love to tie dollar amounts to a satisfaction rate of people," Bryce said, asking for data that links additional digital spend to patron outcomes.

Commissioners asked about advertising the consortium and whether patrons understand that a title appearing in Libby might be owned by another member library; staff said the consortium model expands access but reduces local control over some titles. Staff asked for commission feedback on priorities as staff prepare the city budget submission to council later in April.