It’s like ‘water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink’

I joined a virtual book club during the Covid-19 lockdown, and it was a lifeline. It was also the first time I’d ever joined a book club. Odd thing for a book lover/word nerd/writer/librarian to say, but there it is.

Before that, there were kids to raise and a host of other demands or challenges with time. Plus, when time was at a premium, I wanted to read what I wanted to read, and it usually wasn’t what everyone else was reading.

The virtual book club still meets, but the “book” part of the club has all but ceased to be. Now a more accurate description would be: an occasional check-in for the geographically dispersed. Apparently, this happens to some other book clubs, too.

A few months ago, I finally joined an in-person book club. Some members read a lot — I mean, a LOT, and are up on all the latest and hottest authors and titles. I fall asleep while reading, so I am a slacker. They let me join anyway.

Getting hold of the latest and greatest titles, though, has proved to be challenging. Not everyone wants to buy a new book each month or has an Audible subscription. Also, some people prefer to read rather than listen, so an audio book isn’t an attractive option.

No problem, just use inter-library loan, right? Well, thanks to the dumbness of DOGE, the Institute for Museum and Library Services’ budget was slashed, and the federal cuts affect state libraries.

State libraries provide funding for inter-library loan reimbursements and related services, so now, you’ll wait longer for your requests to arrive if you live in Iowa. If you live in South Dakota, well, their state library’s cuts were so severe that they suspended ILL funding entirely.

In an age when we are deluged by more information than we can possibly read, digest, or critically examine, it’s ironic that obtaining books through libraries is becoming more challenging.

I’m not even talking about the folks who are trying to remove materials from both school and public libraries. You can read the latest from Nicole Baart on the ongoing challenges at the Sioux Center Public Library in her Substack, "This Stays Here."

What I’m talking about is access at its most basic level, how books get into people’s hands or in the case of ebooks and audio books, into their devices.

Let’s start with physical books. When a book is published, the copies are typically sent to a wholesale book distributor where bookstores and libraries order copies of new releases.

The largest book distributor in America, Baker & Taylor, recently announced that they are going out of business.  Baker & Taylor has been the leader in book distribution for decades and was especially popular with libraries. On the other hand, this news seems like it would be a huge win for its competitor, Ingram.

While Ingram might be happy about increased business, it also requires infrastructure and staffing changes. Stepping into the bigger shoes vacated by B&T is not going to happen overnight. So, there may be a temporary slowdown in book distribution, and libraries and bookstores and their patrons will be inconvenienced.

At this news, some people will certainly say, “Why do we even have libraries anymore? Everything is on the internet.”

“Nobody buys (or needs) physical books anymore.”

“I get all the books I want on my Kindle/phone/iPad.”

But here’s the thing: Not everything is on the internet and not necessarily freely. When it comes to ebooks, you can buy them from the Kindle store and there’s subscription-based Audible for audiobooks. Lucky the person who can buy an electronic book in either form whenever they want.

Barring that, the State Library of Iowa offers electronic books to all Iowa libraries who participate in their Bridges program. Bridges is the name of the program, and Libby is the name of the app that delivers electronic book formats, either as ebooks or audio books.

So, there’s the library, yes. What a lot of people don’t understand is that electronic versions cost a library more than purchasing a physical book, and the library rarely owns said titles. Electronic versions of books are usually leased by contract for specific lengths of time.

If you read the next great American detective mystery on Libby and tell your best friend about it, they may have to wait awhile for their turn. Licensing limits the number of checkouts allowed per title and sometimes the wait list is months long.

I have been on a waiting list behind more than 400 people for an electronic title, telling me I may have to wait 37 weeks. Of course, I gave up and tried inter-library loan. Most of the time the book will arrive, but not always. I have had requests canceled because too few libraries owned the book or because it was too new to lend to other libraries.

Recently, I requested an ILL for a title that my book club planned to read. I placed the request as soon as we decided on the title, and on the day of our meeting, the book finally arrived. Another member placed an ILL request through another library and still didn’t have the book by the night of the meeting.

And yes, there are libraries that purchase multiple copies of books — book sets — and they will lend these to book clubs, but you have to pick the right book and plan far in advance. A further complication for us, barring the use of book sets, is that our book club members live in different communities and use different libraries. So, not a workable option for us.

Joni Mitchell sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” But I know what I had when I had it.  Easy access. Efficient service. It’s not gone, but it’s fading fast.

Joan Zwagerman is a book-reading slacker, and while she doesn't make New Year's resolutions, she hopes to do better this year.