Libraries Pay More for E-Books. Some States Want to Change That.

It’s hard to imagine a library that doesn’t carry “Fahrenheit 451.” But making Ray Bradbury’s classic novel about book burning available to libraries in an e-book format can be its own little dystopian nightmare, according to Carmi Parker, a librarian with the Whatcom County Library System in northwest Washington.

That’s because library access to digital books and digital audiobooks — often collectively referred to as e-books — generally costs much more than the print version of these books. The Whatcom system must pay $51.99 to license a digital copy of “Fahrenheit 451,” which can be checked out by one patron at a time, and which expires after two years. Other licensing agreements offered by major publishers expire after a set number of checkouts.