As the demand rises, libraries are struggling to keep up due to many factors. In some cases a lack of technological knowledge by librarians is a factor. Library budgets are down while the prices publishers are requiring for the acquisition of e-books has drastically increased. The e-book price for libraries for books published by legacy publishers is often three times the cost of the print version. This is in part because traditional publishers are still very much threatened by e-books despite their adding dramatically to their bottom lines.

The end result for borrowers unfortunately is frustration. Long wait times and popular titles that are simply unavailable have library members fuming. Penguin, for example, will allow a library to purchase only one copy of an e-book. Since the policy for selling e-books to libraries is one copy-one lender, this means only one person may check out that e-book at a time regardless of how popular it may be. Other major publishers, such as Simon and Shuster and Macmillan, will not sell e-books to libraries. The American Library Association is working with publishers and authors to improve dialog and working relationships so that library members can eventually have more access to e-books.

Some of the difficulty comes from confusion and misunderstanding on the part of not only publishers but also of authors. Last spring some very irritated and angry authors shut down a web site named LendInk because they thought it was allowing readers to download e-books, thus lending them out without purchase or restriction. This would have been a clear violation of copyright laws. But in fact what the site was doing was allowing people who already owned an e-book to share it with others. Authors in general think that sharing e-books is bad for sales. The truth is just the opposite. Just as with the music industry, sharing increases awareness and therefore demand. It is good for book sales.

As e-books continue to increase in popularity with readers of all stripes and technology continues to improve, authors and publishers will need to find ways to work with libraries to make e-books as conveniently and regularly available to library borrowers as print books. For self-publishers, who often choose to publish either first or exclusively in an e-book format, it is vital that the problems associated with e-books and library availability become sorted out as quickly as possible.