Publishers could sell 26-checkout ebooks for $15 and eternal ebooks for $45. Once libraries have a lot of patrons using their ebooks, they would likely buy one eternal copy and several limited use copies of bestsellers. Less popular authors might warrant a limited checkout purchase, while books in a series might warrant the eternal copy.

In this conversation between publishers and libraries, libraries have taken a stance that “renting” books is not something we do. We prefer to own and retain the rights of first sale. However, we do lease other sorts of information every time we pay for database access. As soon as we quit paying for access, those sources go away. So there is precedent… successful precendent that libraries are prepared to live with.

So why don’t publishers try to model ebook lending after other informational databases? Publishers could create yearly subscription package deals for libraries – preset collections of books, including upcoming bestsellers, popular titles, past titles by popular authors, and books by authors for which the publisher is trying to develop a following. There could be different size collections with different price tags. There might be pricing allowances for small libraries or pricing premiums for libraries with high circulation rates. There could be pricing for consortia. Publishers could even embargo new bestsellers for one month to allow them to capture some of the high-demand sales.

Libraries, in this exchange, would get a lot more titles for the money they spend, but some of the titles could be ones that they might not have chosen if they were paying by the book. Some of the titles may circulate less than 26 times a year, but if the library sets a one-week circulation period for bestsellers, or only allows one or two checkouts at a time, books will hopefully be “returned” sooner than two weeks, allowing some books to circulate more than 26 times (it is my understanding that some ereaders allow early “returns” and others do not). Periodically, when the publisher refreshed the database, some titles would fall away and new ones would be added, which would be a bonus for your patrons (though a bit of extra work for your cataloger).

The pricing would be whatever the market would bear. Libraries would need to calculate about how many circulations they would expect to get and how much they are willing to pay per circulation to determine if the package is a good use of their resources. If your library spends $150,000/year on print materials and has 600,000 checkouts, you normally pay 25c per checkout. The libraries in my area range between 25c and 45c (2009 statistics). Ebook checkouts might be worth a little more than that, as you are saved the time and material costs for acquisition, processing, shelving, maintenance, and weeding.

This won’t work for small publishers, but it could provide a reliable income stream for the big 6 if they don’t overprice, and an easy way for libraries to get a quick start on a collection.