"When a reader places a hold on an ebook at their local library, they rarely think about the financial machinery behind that simple transaction. But for library administrators across North America, the economics of digital lending have become an increasingly urgent crisis — one that a coalition of the continent’s most powerful library organizations is now taking directly to the publishing industry.

"On May 26, 2026, five major library associations released a landmark joint statement demanding that large publishers overhaul the licensing models that govern how libraries access digital content. The organizations — the Urban Libraries Council (ULC), the Public Library Association (PLA), the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC/CBUC), the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), and the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) — represent the vast majority of public libraries in the United States and Canada [1]. Their unified message was blunt: the current system is broken, and readers are paying the price."

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