(This item has updated from an earlier version to include Penguin’s statement.)
Penguin Group (USA) has backtracked from at least part of its recent decision to limit library lending. OverDrive posted the following on its Digital Library blog Wednesday morning:
‘Get for Kindle’ for all Penguin eBooks in your catalog has been restored as of this morning. Penguin titles are available for check out by Kindle users and the Kindle format will be available for patrons who are currently on a waiting list for a Penguin title. This does not affect new releases, which remain unavailable.
We apologize for the inconvenience this caused for your library and patrons.
At this time, no further information is available. We hope to share more details in the near future
Penguin released the following statement:
In follow-up to our statement yesterday about supplying Penguin Group (USA) digital books to libraries:
Penguin USA took the decision yesterday to withhold the supply of new digital titles from suppliers to US libraries until concerns about the security of the copyright of its authors have been resolved.
In addition, Penguin informed suppliers to libraries that it expected them to abide by existing agreements to offer older digital titles to libraries only if those files were held behind the firewalls of the suppliers.
Following receipt of this information, Overdrive, a supplier of ebooks to US libraries, removed “Get for Kindle” from its offering.
Penguin has subsequently been informed by Amazon that it had not been consulted by Overdrive about the terms of Penguin’s agreement with Overdrive. Amazon has undertaken to work with Penguin and Overdrive between now and the end of the year to address Penguin’s concerns. Penguin will, as a result, restore the supply of these titles until the end of the year in order to return the availability of older titles to all its digital customers.
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